


One Bittybone At A Time

by LeenaZenyo



Category: Alternate Universe - Bittybones - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Also fluff, Alternate Universe - Bittybones, Angst, Blood, Depression, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, aweful things happen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2018-06-04 19:07:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 40,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6671542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeenaZenyo/pseuds/LeenaZenyo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You didn't want a bitty. Not after what you've seen. You're absolutely horrified of them, but in a single moment you change your mind.<br/>You want to protect them, you always have.<br/>And this time, you're going to. </p><p>Life of a Reader who adopts Cherry.</p><p>AU by http://bittybones-au.tumblr.com/</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T.W. Blood and Death!  
> I know first chapter and I start off with this heavy stuff?  
> How rude Leena, how rude.

You didn’t want anything to do with Bittybones. You’d seen them. You’d seen them <i>everywhere</i>.

You knew people who had them. Every other person in the dorm seemed to have a small bundle of them. They were the most popular pet because they could be so easy to take care of if you got one with the right temperament.

Bittybones were easily trained unless you got one with a horrible temper. But they were still the easiest to sneak around. Hell, most people didn’t bother leaving them in the dorms alone. They could just slip them into their backpack and be just fine.

You didn’t hate them. On the contrary, they were cute and you loved playing with other people’s bitties.

But.. now, looking at them..?

It makes your chest and stomach hurt.

The smaller they are the worse it hurts.

 

Living in the dorm you share a lot of things. Your room in particular was on a single hall which fortunately has its own showers and washers. 

One day you were just doing your laundry. You were alone in the room and had just shoved your stuff in, started it, and were about to walk out when you hear the garbled and weak crying of something.

You stop and turn back, listening for the sound again. After a few moments you just barely managed to hear it before you walked over to one of the washers. You knew you’d heard something clicking, but this.. wasn’t normal? Something about it told you to stop and listen.

You heard it again from the washer now and just barely managed to catch a small boney face pressing itself to the glass, crying out and trying to open it.

Your heart sunk and you cried out something you don’t even remember. Maybe help, maybe just “no”! You yanked on the door, but these washers locked shut after they were started. You looked at the time in panic. What setting was it on, how long had it been in there, how could you shut it off?

Frantically you climbed on top of the washer turning knobs and trying to reach back down to pull the electrical plug, but you couldn’t quite reach, your arms weren’t long enough and this was the middle washer.

You cried out again for help.

But nobody came.

You had tears falling down your face, adrenaline pumping as you start pushing another washer out the way and pulling the one near you further away from the wall. You climbed on top and yanked the plug, now able to reach and scrambled back in front of the washer, tripping on the slightly slick floor and landing hard with a loud SLAP.

Still you turned as quickly as you could and yanked the now unlocked washer open. You couldn’t see it anymore. You sobbed loudly.

“Please please, oh god, where are you, come on—“ You were yanking clothes out throwing them behind you and littering the room with this persons sopping wet clothes. They burned. They were hot. This had been a hot cycle.

You pulled away another shirt and saw him. Clothes soaked, burning up and just lying there.

A small bittybones laid limp in your hands as you shakily pulled him out. His skull was busted, he wasn’t moving. Cracks scattered over every bone you could see. You laid him back in your hands now and he laid there like a doll. Broken. No light left in his eyes, but water seemed to leak out like tears.

Curling down you held the small bitty bones until his owner came back to check their laundry.

It hadn’t moved the entire time.

 

At first they were confused and angry why their clothes were everywhere. But as you showed her the small skeleton body she stopped.

To your surprise and disgust, the girl just huffed only seeming mildly upset.

You blacked out on what she actually said, something about having just got him and what a waste.

She acted like he was just some fish or mouse.

You didn’t know how to respond.

You couldn’t respond.. all you could do was just get up, and walk off.

 

It’s been months since then. You couldn’t handle the sight of any bitties anymore.  It hurt too much to have seen that.  Each time you saw one peek its head out of the bag of anyone in the dorms you started sobbing uncontrollably.

It had gotten a little better now, but it still hurt.

Eventually you’d decided to move out of the dorm and into the apartments nearby to campus. It was much easier to be alone and quiet there.

But leaving you alone for long periods of time wasn’t good either. Depression took over and you’d find yourself just lying about, refusing to eat or work on assignments. You’d had it bad all your life, but being alone didn’t help matters. At least before you had someone who forced you to keep on going.

Now, as you sit in your mostly empty apartment you aren’t sure how to feel.

It’s lonely. So very lonely.

 

A month of living on your own and you gave up.

 

You quit.

 

You were done.

 

You decided not to be alone anymore. You abruptly made up your mind. You were going to get a pet. You stood up, left the apartment, and drove up to the pet store.

 

Walking in, you weren’t sure what you wanted. Something that made sound? No, you really didn’t want anything noisy.. but would something silent be good company? Slowly as you walked past cages of rabbits, mice, and birds you sighed. Continuing further back you found your way to a small area of cat and dog kennels.

And there you stood for roughly half an hour just staring, rather unimpressed at the animals, nothing grabbed you. Nothing made you want to hold it close, take it home, keep it forever.

 

Until, you heard a familiar sound.

A blood curdling scream rang throughout the store from your right, pens you’d purposely avoided going to.

“Shh, shh, I’m sorry little guy.. I’m sorry—“

One of the employees was picking up a tiny skeleton out of a then pen with thick gloves. He turned towards you starting to walk past, holding the small skeleton at arm’s length. It screamed in his hands, sobbing struggling. You saw blood start leaking down its leg and you tensed up immediately reaching forward out of instinct and grabbing the person’s arm.

At first you just watched, the little creature was crying little translucent red tears, trying weakly to bite through the gloves and just free itself. It was obviously hurt, in pain, but the moment it had seen that he wasn’t moving it stopped what it was doing, it reached out towards you, spine bent backwards almost painfully, crying out.

He was literally reaching out for you, begging for help, sobbing and tiny hands gripping at the safety of your arms.

 

“Ma’am?”  the employee asked, questioning why you’d stopped him.

You jerked at the question and looked up to him. “S-sorry, what happened to this little guy?”

He frowned looking down sadly.

“He got hurt, we aren’t sure when but it looks pretty bad,” He turned the little skeleton showing his left side. His femur had a singular bad crack all the way down it’s side and his tibia was shattered completely only held together by the length of the backside of the bone.  Even his pelvis looked chipped and honestly you couldn’t tell what had happened to create such a bad wound.

Still you were thankful someone had taken notice immediately.

“So he’s being taken to be treated?” you questioned, voice and expression full of relief. You sighed, so glad they were being treated well. You gave a soft smile to the small skeleton.

“Uhm… I’m afraid we don’t have that kind of medical equipment, and even if we did we don’t have the ability to keep him in the back for as long as it would take to heal <i>bone</i>.. the most we can do is to put him to sleep..”

The bitty let out another loud cry, struggling in his hands and just sobbing.

Your blood ran cold, eyes immediately cutting up towards the man.

“Excuse me?” you questioned, much sharper than intended.

“I-I’m sorry ma’am, there isn’t enough medical information about bittybones—or elemental bitties for that matter, we just don’t have the resources to do anything for him. Not to mention he’s the runt, the likely hood of him surviving is extremely low—“

“I’ll take him,” you said quickly, not even a second thought as you reached forward and gingerly attempted to remove the skeleton from his hands. He had no choice but to let go or risk harming the tiny skeleton. “I’ll fix him up, as much time as he needs. Just show me what all I need to take care of him, I’ll get it.”

You held the skeleton close to your chest, feeling tiny hands grip your shirt and press his skull into the material, he hiccuped and finally his crying died down.

You weren’t going to let another one die in front of you. Not now, not ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting off strong with Death and Sadness! Good job Leena, hurt everyone's soul.


	2. Bringing Cherry Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little taste of what being with Cherry so far is like.

Trying to take your new bitty home was a hassle.   
First of all, this employee was spoon feeding you every bit of information about bitties, as if you’d never seen one before.

Well, you hadn’t _owned_ one before, but there were more pressing matters at hand, like the fact your new companion was still _Bleeding_.

With a new dent in your wallet and a sick looking bitty in your arms you’d managed to drive home. This had been particularly difficult when you had the small skeleton cradled in your shirt having to bunch part of it up and hold pressure on his wound.   
Turns out, this particular bitty was a Cherry. Well, more specifically, he was a Runt who was nicknamed Cherry, but still. They tended to be particularly emotional and while they attached to people easily their anxiety made it hard to keep them settled. 

Bringing in the bitty and armful of things from the pet store didn’t take long, in fact you practically flew out the car and up the stairs into your apartment. Your bitty’s new supplies almost immediately laid forgotten on the counter and you carried Cherry around the house, gathering supplies to try and help with his wound. Gauze, peroxide… you weren’t really sure what all needed to be done. After all this wasn’t just a cut. This was broken bone.   
You ended up in the kitchen, breaking and filing down some parts of a toothpick. Cherry had managed to sleep, or at least you assumed he was asleep. He wasn’t making any sound and he wasn’t looking around at everything you were doing. He had his face buried in your shirt and laid still as you held him close. 

“Cherry..?” you finally asked quietly, the first word you’d directed at him. He tensed up and slowly looked up at you. His cheeks were stained a light red from crying and he looked nervous.   
“Can you sit down on the counter for me, so I can try and bandage up your leg?” you questioned softly, starting to loosen your hold on him. You’d kept your shirt wrapped around him tight the whole time, trying to keep him from bleeding anymore, though from the looks of it, it had already slowed down quite a bit.   
He didn’t move away from your hold, but didn’t struggle either as you sat him down. He winced and rubbed his eyes, soft cries starting up again. You tried to smile at him.  
“That was a close one little guy, you’re lucky I came by huh?” you questioned. Immediately this sent him into another crying frenzy, sobbing louder than he had been since the store. You quickly picked him back up and held him to your chest, “Shh shh, I’m sorry, It’s okay it’s okay, don’t cry!”   
Your comforts did little to quell him before he burrowed his face against your chest. You could still hear him, though he was much more muffled than before, still hiccupping and sobbing. Your expression fell almost to a pout just rocking him lightly for a few minutes until he calmed down again. Seemed the easiest way to quiet him was keeping him close in your arms.   
“How about we try that again, huh? We really gotta get this leg of yours taken care of,” You sat him back down on the table and his little arms reached out for you again, tears pooling at the rim of his eye sockets again with a quiet whine. 

The scene pulled at your heartstrings and nearly put tears in your eyes. Never before had you seen anything so precious. “Aww..!” you giggled and leaned down pressing a little kiss to the top of his skull.   
He looked stunned for a moment, looking up at you with big crimson eyes. He opened his mouth as if he were going to say something and when he didn’t you pressed another kiss, this time to his cheek. His expression shifted to something more shy. You smiled warmly at him leaning down and pressing little kisses all against his face. 

He was so tiny.. so very tiny. Smaller than any bitty you’d ever seen.   
The kisses seemed to relax him enough to allow you to try your hand at that leg again. Cleaning took quite a while, he didn’t want to let you finish cleaning it up and it took even longer to clean all that thick blood away from his wounds. Honestly by the time you could see stained bones it you had begun to wonder if this eve was blood. It was red, but it was so thick. 

With all the cleaning supplies aside you were able to get a good look at what you were working with. The one crack up his leg didn’t seem to be as much of a problem as you expected it to be, but the fractures all along the lower portion of his leg…. It looked as if it would fall apart any minute, just break apart into pieces and spread like dust. 

Wrapping up his leg took quite a while; you had held the toothpicks to either side and tightly wound gauze and tape around his leg. He didn’t look any more uncomfortable than when you had started and the steady stream of tears didn’t turn into hysterics so you figured you must have done something right. 

The rest of him didn’t really appear to need wrapping, there was no blood, or whatever that liquid was, but he still babied it. You couldn’t quite get anything on his hip bone but a cut up band-aid seemed to make quick work of his femur.

“There all done!” You smiled warmly, leaning down and rubbing a finger against his skull, “you did such a good job Cherry, I’m so proud of you.”   
You hummed happily towards him and pressed a quick kiss to his skull. He seemed rather content with this, until you pulled away to go grab him a treat from the bag from the pet store. Immediately, he’d began screaming, arms out and sobbing loudly. 

“N-no d-don’t leave!” he sobbed out scooting along the edge of the counter, closer towards you and desperately holding his arms out. 

This had been the first time he’d spoken to you. Your eyes went wide and you quickly turned back, practically rushing over and cupping him in your hands, “Oh Cherry!”   
You nearly had tears in your eyes, heart beating proudly hearing his small broken voice. He sounded like someone who had just left a high school pep rally, proceeded to cry, and was attempting to explain what had happened to their best friend. But it was so soft and nervous as well that it made you want to hold him and never leave him alone. 

“I’m sorry sweetie, I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” you insisted holding him to your chest and pressing little kisses to his skull again. He relaxed almost instantly, tears still dribbling from his eye sockets, yet over all seeming content. 

Turns out, the bitties from the shelter do not enjoy the “dried bitty treats” they give out. Or at least Cherry didn’t. You weren’t sure why though, they were guaranteed to be a bitties’ favorite.   
“They taste chalky… I don’t.. think they’re really made of fruit…” he practically whispered looking away, as if you would be disappointed in him for saying that. But instead you dug your hand back in the bag of treats, pulling another one out. Cherry leaned away, turning to bury his face in your chest again before he realized you weren’t trying to force him to eat it. He looked up with almost wide eyes, noting you had popped the food into your own mouth chewing it slowly. 

You squinted. “Well it is fruit… it’s Papaya.. but this is commonly used as a treat for rabbits I think..” it was chalky, sweet and not awful, but you could easily understand if someone had decided that this texture wasn’t for them. You picked up the bag and walked it over to the trashcan dropping it in, keeping Cherry close to your chest. “No more of that, then, let’s see if we can find you something else?” 

Cherry looked up at you in wonder, as if you’d just done something amazing, “Y-you.. didn’t have to do that—I-I would have—“ he sputtered, tears in his eyes as if you were going to turn around and blame him for it.

“No, I don’t think that would be fair. If I won’t eat it, why should I make you eat it?” you questioned looking down at him, giving a reassuring smile.   
He didn’t seem to know what to do with this. There were practically stars in his eyes, though you think that may have been the reflection of the ceiling light. He gave a shy smile and nodded, rubbing his eyes, and leaning against your chest once again. “Thank you..” he said softly.

“No problem Cherry, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure your happy and healthy, okay?” You plucked a jar of cherries out of the fridge. You don’t remember getting them, but you have this odd feeling that your new found friend would enjoy these.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I'm not writing enough, next chapter should be longer!  
> Feel free to message me on tumblr http://leenazenyo.tumblr.com/  
> Art and updates regarding the fics will be there!


	3. Calling for you Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, indeed I am still updating!  
> I love bitties too much sdiofjsdoi

During the rest of the day you had spent all your time attempting to set up things for your new Bitty.  
  
Turns out, that’s particularly difficult when said bitty wont separate from you. Yes, you were literally unable to set him down without him crying again. You’d tried, multiple times.  The closest thing to allowing yourself a moment to relax your hand was when you’d set him down and gave him one of those maraschino cherries you kept hoarded in your fridge.  _Don’t you know, these are the best part of buying a milkshake_ you explained to Cherry before. His eyes had gotten so huge and you _swear_ hearts appeared in his pupils as he ate one.  
  
You ended up making the startings of a tiny bed, cutting up an old rectangular tissue box that JUST fit him in length. It was perfect and he was precious. Unfortunately, you didn’t get to finish before sticky hands reached back up to you. You looked at his cherry stained face and giggled grabbing a wash cloth from the counter on the other side of the island and soaking it with warm water.

He’d turned towards you on the opposite side eyes wide and confused why you’d walked away. His eyes teared up and he quickly started scooting all the way around the island, managing to make it halfway before becoming out of breath. He leaned over, too tired to continue and just _reached_ as far as he could stretch towards you, whimpering out in desperation.

Turning back, you notice where he’d moved to and gave a quiet giggle that got his attention. He sat back up and reached again, tiny arms flailing in desperation. “Ah! Hn!” Cherry was reaching towards you, stretching as far as his little bones would reach. It was so precious.

You walked over and leaned down in front of him. “I’m right here Cherry, relax,” you tease him, carefully taking the wet wash rag and wiping down his face of the sticky red substance. The little skeleton had teared up and you gently wiped those away too. Next were his hands. You smiled warmly cupping them against a finger. You’d never seen such tiny bones. So tiny, so fragile, so.. so.. sticky.

You learned very quickly that what goes onto bone, does not always come off easily. While you were happy trying to clean him up you were also terrified of breaking him. But as you were trying to clear him of the sticky hell you’d accidentally introduced upon him, he started giggling and trying to pull his hands away.  
“S-stop, please, that tickles,” he laughed trying to pull his hands from between the cloth and push away at your fingers.

You grinned even wider now and leaned down and kissed his cheek. He reached up, holding your cheeks and pressing as close to your face as he could. You laughed softly nuzzling him, moving the entirety of his body as you did so. He seemed to have relaxed quite a bit too, smiling contently and just holding onto you.

You both paused after some time. You leaned back and looked at the edge of the counter where Cherry had scooted along leaving a trail of red sugary stickiness along the entire length of that side of the counter up to were Cherry was. Cherry seemed to notice it too, eyes trailing over to whatever you were looking at.

His soul sunk slightly and he looked up to you, nervous. Red tears pricked along his eye sockets and he whimpered softly.

“Oh my,” you hummed and reached over, picking him up. As expected his sweater stuck against the smooth surface, enough to give some light resistance as you picked up your tiny companion.

“I-I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to make a mess, p-please don’t take me back!” he cried loudly, squirming in your hold as if he were suddenly terrified of what you would do.

“What?” You were dumbfounded by his reaction, “W—Oh Cherry, no, no no no, you’re fine sweetie, that’s an easy clean up. Though I am going to have to wash your clothes…”

You trailed off, thinking it over, idly holding Cherry close and running your fingers over his skull. “Guess I’ll wash it by hand, shouldn’t take long to dry either..”

You hadn’t even been paying attention, but the look Cherry had given you was one of absolute wonder. He watched as you carried him back into a room which he soon assumed to be yours.

You were digging around in a drawer and he’d crawled up onto your shoulder to get a good look at the room. It was fairly barren at this point. A few pieces of furniture lay about; things were kind of lying in piles. The bed was completely unmade and shoved into a corner. Pillows had piled up in the startings of some kind of nest. But the windows were covered up by blankets and it gave the room a sullen look.

His heart sunk a little. This didn’t look like it belonged to the human who had saved him at all. Since they got home she’d been nothing but happy, if not in a little bit of a tizzy trying to figure out where things went. He’d noticed and he could feel that generally she had a very warm soul. But something was wrong here.. something was very wrong and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“Ah-hah!” you grinned and pulled out a scarf. It was a thin material, with a pattern that didn’t quite fit Cherry in the slightest, but it looked like it could easily drape over his small bones. You tried to fold it in half with one hand so it would at least be more manageable for the small skeleton to bundle around himself. 

Walking back to the kitchen you set the little bitty on the counter and watch as his hands immediately go back up to get back into your hands. He whimpers, but you take the easy access as a time to pull off his sticky jacket and throw it into the empty side of the sink. (The other side is piled high with dishes but you don’t want to talk about that.)

The small bitty looked shocked and went to cover himself. He’s still in tiny little shorts but you’re almost certain he’d scooted that along the cherry syrup as well. Just taking off his jacket you took note of his little rib cage. He really was just a tiny skeleton, and you couldn’t help but stare in awe.

You didn’t expect him to stand on that leg so you were going to pick him up when you noticed the red starting to cover his cheeks as he teared up and looked up at you, face flushed with embarrassment. He made hesitant little grabs towards the scarf. Barely managing to snag an end and cover maybe a quarter of his ribs.

“I’m sorry sweetie, I’ve gotta help you take these off, you could hurt yourself,” you murmured softly, tugging at his sorts, he’s nervous but seems to be letting you. You can’t help but feel like this has happened before. Part of this is really familiar. You take his shorts off and set them in the sink before shrugging the scarf from your shoulder to hand it to him.

In that moment you realized why this felt so familiar. The scarf slipped from your fingers and pooled by your feet like a snake. Looking over the tiny bitty you remembered the very familiar scene not to many months ago.

_You were frantically stripping the small bitty out of burning hot clothes. Water was pouring from his eyesockets and mandible._

**_..please?_**

_He had looked so desperate to try to get out, how long had he been trying to get your attention?_

**_Human? Human!_**

_Now the small skeleton laid limp in your hands, soaked and broken like a drowned rat._

**_What happened..? Please talk to me!_**

_You’d watched him die. You hadn’t been able to save him._

**MAMA!**

You snapped out of it hearing Cherry call for you, he looked worried and he was trying to get up on his feet, though he winced and kept slipping. The small bitty looked anxious and so so worried about you.

You felt tears rolling down your cheeks and you gently reached forward, picking him up and cradling him to your chest. “I-I’m sorry, I’m here..” You turned from the sink and slowly sunk to the floor with him close to your chest and forcing a smile.

His eyes were focused on you, he’d started crying sometime when you’d spaced out and was now clinging tightly to you. You sat there for some time, both trying to calm down. Cherry was so scared for you, and you desperately were trying to forget those memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think of the chapter in the comments! They drive me to keep going, so feel free to poke me if it takes to long to update!
> 
> Hit me up on Tumblr! LeenaZenyo.tumblr.com


	4. Clean Clothes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry I haven't been updating often! So because of that here is a longer chapter!

By the time you managed to pull yourself from the floor Cherry had stopped crying against you and had taken to toying with the few strands of your hair that laid past your collar bone. He seemed rather entertained, and honestly the motion helped you relax quite a bit.

“Okay Cherry,” you say softly, picking up the scarf from the floor and gently wrapping it around him in some makeshift form of clothing, “How about we get your clothes cleaned up?”

He looks up at you, noting your strained smile. There is fondness in your eyes, but also pain. His brow bone furrows slightly and he reaches up, managing to catch the foot of his good leg in the collar of your shirt and hoist himself up just enough to head-butt under your chin and loosely wrap his skeletal arms around your neck.

You smile at that and move a hand to trace lightly against his spine. “I’m okay Cherry, I’m sorry if I worried you. I won’t let it happen again, okay?” you question.

Cherry leans back to look at you, eyes studying your face silently. He looks away, unsure if he should say something but decides to let it go. “Okay..”

You giggle at this, glad he’s started talking, even if it was just a little bit. Maybe it wouldn’t take to long for him to settle in after all?

You set him and his small bundle of scarf down on the counter, stepping only about a foot to the right to start washing out his jacket. Immediately, you hear him whine and start scooting closer to the edge of the sink.

“Cherry, I’m right here, you can see me,” you laughed and leaned down pressing a little kiss to his forehead.

You aren’t surprised in the slightest when you have a pair of tiny skeletal hands on your cheeks. With a quiet sigh you take your thankfully dry hands away from the sink and pick him back up.

“What am I going to do with you Cherry?” You hum nuzzling him gently, “No really, what am I going to do?”

You spent the night juggling between trying to hold Cherry and do things around the house. The clothes washing problem was solved when you pulled yourself up on the counter next to the sink and proceeded to keep Cherry calmly in your lap as you washed his clothes in the sink next to you. Your back hurt from crouching down, but as long as Cherry was content so were you.

You smiled to him as he curled down in your lap while you washed the clothing, easily moving back into your arms while you slid off and went to clean the stickiness off the table. He still looked rather nervous about that, as if you’d change your mind and were actually upset with him about a little tiny mess like that.

Again, you reassured him you were not upset and topped the conversation off with a few kisses before he relaxed against you.

You smiled down at him again. Geeze, had you stopped smiling since he came home?

 

Oh, right the clothes were wet. You turned back to the sink, rinsed out your rag and picked up his clothes.

“We’ll just go ahead and dry them with the blow dryer,” you hummed going to the bathroom and plugging in a nicely wrapped up hair dryer. You can’t even remember the last time you used it for yourself, but it seemed to serve the purpose well enough today.  You held up each article of clothing. Barely able to juggle between holding them not so close to your body and keeping Cherry safely in your arms.

Curiously you turned it to low and pulled the device far enough away from the small skeleton to not startle him and pointed it in his direction. You weren’t sure what you were expecting, maybe him to be startled by the current of air or even to swat at it, but he just leaned into its warmth.

“Does that feel good, Cherry?” you asked him. He turned to you and grinned.

“Yeah.. it’s so warm and nice—the store was always kind of cold.. Y-your house has been warmer… b-but.. this is really good..” He turned and leaned into the stream of warm air again and the two of you sat for some time before you finally pulled the hair dryer away.

“Now let’s get your clothes all dried up,” you turned it back to high and dried out his jacket and shorts. Hmm.. these were the only clothes you had for him… What was he even going to sleep in—

You yelp and flinch slightly pulling the dryer away from your hand. You’d managed to overheat your poor fingers and geeze if that didn’t hurt!

“Ahh, did you hurt yourself?” Cherry asked as you held your hand awkwardly. He could see the reddish color that your pointer finger and thumb were turning against the clothes. The small skeleton crawled over and leaned down against your hand pressing a gentle kiss to each of the fingers and looking up to you. “Kisses make it better, right?”

Looking down at him you must’ve had stars in your eyes, because he was blushing and giggling proudly up at you. You grinned back and kissed the top of his skull. “You are absolutely right!”

 

A few more minutes of drying later you managed to completely void the clothes of any water and carefully dress the little bitty back in his clothes. He seemed more than happy as well, given that the clothes were clean and had that nice ‘fresh out the dryer’ feeling.

Though looking at it.. these were the only clothes he seemed to have weren’t they? He didn’t even have any sleep clothes and that certainly wouldn’t do.

You decided to make your way back to your room again and snagged a shirt you never wore much anymore and back down to the kitchen.  Opening your junk drawer, you plucked out a cheap sewing kit and some likely dull scissors.

You looked at the shirt and then to cherry. It was a redish maroon shirt, paled out with a pattern of white and a pale orange. The pattern was an indescribable mess of some kind of diamond shape meshed over each other.. kinda.

You vaguely remember why you didn’t like wearing this shirt, but you thought it might look cute on cherry. 

“Do you like this material?” you asked him holding it to his level as you sat him back on the counter, close enough to your hand to cling to it. He reached over and felt it, smiling softly.

“Yeah, it’s nice and comfy,” he hummed, nuzzling gently against you like he could see where you were going with this. Ohh he wanted it.

“I’m going to say ahead of time, I’m not really so good at sewing… or uh.. making clothes so.. bare with me, this is gunna just be some starter sleep dress for you to go to bed in tonight, I bet it’d be nice to get out of those ones you have on for a bit huh?” You question him, to which he nods rather eagerly.

You take your time trying to cut out two perfectly even little T shapes with a small dip in the middle to serve as a neck hole. You turn it inside out and start hand sewing the shapes together and nervously hand it over to Cherry to try on.   
  
He does so without hesitation, looking rather excited to do so and smooths the sleep dress out.   
“How does it look?” he asks you. You chew your lip, unimpressed with how awful the sleeves laid. Though, what could you expect. Minimal effort gives minimal results.

“The real question is how does it feel? Though, if you reaaaaally want me to answer,” you paused and he looked nervously up at you, awaiting your judgement as if he’d been the one to make it. “Is you could look adorable in anything you were dressed in~”

He squeaks happily at you, arms up and you can’t help, but to pick him up and hold him close to your chest. “But I am going to have to learn how to make little clothes for you I promise I’ll get better!”

You nuzzle against him and leave the remains of the shirt and his other clothes on the table for you to bother with another day. For now you yawn and make your way back to your room feeling surprisingly tired.

It had been a long day and your new companion was likely as tired as you were.

Again, you found out that putting Cherry down was simply not an option. Even when you were trying to change he started sniffling and crying and you just couldn’t take that. Instead you managed to somehow juggle holding Cherry in one hand as you tried to dress yourself, and switch him around before you tried to do the other sleeve. The same happened with your shorts. It was a rather tedious process, but whatever you had to do to make sure your little bitty was safe right?

Right.

You turn off all lights, but the lamp beside the bed and you go and lay down, gently putting Cherry beside you to curl up on the pillow. “I’ll give you a bed to yourself next time. I was trying to make it.. but uh, I got distracted.”

You laugh a little and Cherry shakes his head. “No I wanna sleep here next to you!”

Smiling at this you nod and press another kiss to his precious little skull and move to turn out the lights.

“Good night Cherry,” you hum contently reaching up and gently petting him.

 

“Uh…” He starts, somewhat nervous. He hadn’t laid down yet and it left you a little confused.

“Excuse me… uhm..” he trails off again and fidgets.

“Yes sweetie?” you questioned, peeking up to look at him.

He’s quiet for some time and looks almost a little… uncomfortable.

“We.. didn’t eat dinner...” he says softly, as if him saying it would have disappointed you.

Your head popped right off your pillow, eyes wide. You’d completely forgotten food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Plot will be picking up pretty soon~ Gotta get Cherry adjusted before I can move on >v>  
> Leave a comment if you enjoyed it! It means the world to me and keeps me writing~  
> If you want to hear updates feel free to stop by my tumblr LeenaZenyo.tumblr.com


	5. Dinner Bells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for it taking so long! But here's a really long chapter to make up for it!

As you picked Cherry up and scrambled off to the kitchen he took a look around the house again. The bedroom still seemed too bare and the hallways didn’t have a single picture hanging. Come to think of it, had there been a single one around the house?

He twisted and turned as you walked, keeping a sharp eye out in the darkness for anything that looked like a photo or frame, but came up empty handed. Oddly enough the kitchen seemed to be the most decorated area. The table was small, but clean with a cloth over it and had a napkin, salt, and pepper holder. The island also had a few things decoratively about. There was a small, but clearly growing pile of mail in one corner and a small statue of something he couldn’t quite pick out from this angle.

Was it a tree stump? Maybe the other side had something on it, or perhaps his human was just really sentimental about this piece of wood. He looked up to her as she nervously made her way around the kitchen.

The bag from the shop was sitting in a chair, kind of slumped over and lame looking. You hastily pulled out a bag of what looked to be kibble for your skelefriend. Reading over it boasted, “Bitties Love It!”

You turned to Cherry and he frowned a little looking up to you with those big, bright-red eyes that told you otherwise. You opened it up anyway and took three or four of the little pellet like foodstuffs and shoved them in your mouth. Crunch, Crunch.. crunch… .. . crunch...

“This tastes like dirt—no.. sand..” You quickly sat Cherry on the counter and spit up whatever the garbage they were feeding your poor little bitty was. “Ew, holy crap, why would they feed that to you?” you gagged and rinsed your mouth out straight from the faucet, “Do you really like this stuff??”

Cherry had his hands over his face trying not to giggle at your suffering. He slowly shook his head and you could still here a few precious sounds slipping through.

“And you didn’t tell me I was going to vomit if I tried that? Ew! You brat!” you teased, quickly scooting over, and reached down to tickling his ribs.

The kitchen was filled with a loud giggling between the two of you. You were relentless and he was to small to fight back. No matter how much he twisted and turned there was no escape from you.

“I give—haha, I give up!” Cherry cried through his giggles. You grinned and leaned down, pressing a small kiss to his forehead.

“Can we eat?” He asked patting your cheek as you kissed him.

“mm.. I’m sure we can find something, what do you like to eat Cherry?” You questioned, scooping him up and going to the fridge to open it. Cherry shivered at the rush of cold air and curled back against you.

 There didn’t look like much to be honest and your tiny partner seemed to notice too. You frowned a little and gave a nervous laugh. “How about, we make an instant meal and you just pick what you want from it?”

Red eyes shifted back up to you as he tilted his head. “Instant meal..?” He questioned.

“Yeah, like.. er, hold on.” You closed the fridge door and opened the freezer, reaching up and grabbing something out. Looked like mashed potatoes, chicken fingers, and a brownie all in their own respective compartments on a tray of sorts. “We just pop it in the microwave and poof, nice warm meal. How does that sound?”

Cherry looked at it curiously, reaching over to touch the icy tray. He flinched back at the cold crystals, but shrugged back up at you. “Okay.”

 

You smiled at that and sat him next to you on the counter while you opened it and moved to put it in the microwave. Immediately, again, you heard him cry out for you. Arms out and beginning to look upset.

“Now, now, none of that,” You insist, gently picking him up in one hand and going to the microwave and popping the meal in. “I’ve got you Cherry.”

Beep beep beep. You set the timer and watch the meal spin on the tray while it heats up.  You ended up lifting the ever so curious Cherry as well. He watched it the entire time, as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

By the time it had finished Cherry had started dozing off. The sound of the microwave was a dull white noise that could make anyone tired, and the constant spinning was enough to finish the job. He’d nearly nodded off until the loud DING was enough to jolt him awake.

He yelped and scrambled in your hand as best as he could with his one leg, looking around quickly and finally landing on you. His breath was quick and he clung to your hand.

“Woah, woah, easy there Cherry! It was just the microwave!” You brought him close to your chest and he burrowed himself close, nuzzling to your chest and clinging to your clothes.

“I-I thought someone came in..” He whimpered.

“Came in?” you frowned and looked to the door, which was barely visible from the kitchen, “The door is locked, no one can come in—“

It dawned on you that the ‘ding’ from the microwave may have reminded Cherry of the sound that went off at the pet store.

“Oh, Cherry sweetie, you’re fine. I promise, no more pet store. You’re safe here, okay?” You asked him, running a finger against his skull and down the back of his spine.

He clung even tighter to your shirt, eyes closed tight. “You promise…?”

You smiled sweetly to him and nodded again, “I really promise..”

He seemed to accept this and opened his eyes after a few moments, but stayed pretty close. You got the meal out of the microwave, finished opening it, and stirred it. It would be hot for a while yet, probably too hot for Cherry. But the more important thing was figuring out how to make it where he could eat this stuff. You didn’t exactly have a tiny fork or spoon.

You hummed quietly trying to figure out what to do with him, he could just use his hands if you ripped the chicken into smaller shreds. Hopefully the rest would be solid enough to just scoop up as well, you never knew with these kinds of foods if they’d cook all the way.

As you pondered this you looked down towards Cherry who was slowly peeking away from your chest and around the room again. You’d noticed him doing that quite a bit.

“Cherry, do you want to take a look around the apartment before we eat? It will take a while to cool.”

His face lit up at this, crawling awkwardly higher, just till he could look over your shoulder and see everything. “Yes please!”

You smiled at this and rubbed his spine.  “Well this is the kitchen, It’s kind of bare bones right now until I can buy more kitchen supplies, never really had any on my own before so, ya know, it’s just got some basics.”

He nodded having noticed this. The tour continued to the living room which barely had any furniture either, a small used loveseat, table, and gaming set up. While there were games a plenty and every Nintendo console under the sun, the TV was dwarfed by the vast amount of gaming supplies and didn’t seem to fit in a living room at all.

 With light in there it was one of the more decorated rooms. A few larger drawings. One of a portion of a cow skull and another of a mermaid. There were a few nick-knacks scattered around as well, but nothing that seemed to follow a particular theme. A ton of little figures sat at the base of the TV, while a doll sat on the smallest shelf on the far wall. Cherry thought this one was particularly pretty. It had black hair all pinned up and a kimono and was _just_ bigger than him. Then on the coffee table sat what looked to be a sketch book and a figure of a skeleton in a cat suit, tangled up in thread.

Cherry tensed up at that figure. Its face was so blank and its mouth looked like stitches. He whimpered and turned back towards you. You raised a brow and looked at it, pausing to think. “Oh, do you not like this?” You asked putting a hand on Cherry to steady him as you leaned down to pick it up.

He went ridged and turned quickly into your shirt, “I-it’s scary…I-it doesn’t have eyes..”

You looked down to it and tilted your head. He was right, it didn’t have the small shines of light and color that gave your precious new friend life. You smiled at that and rubbed his back.

“It was a gift from a friend,” You informed him, “Someone from a long time ago.”

He lifted his head as you walked back to the kitchen. “Oh..”

“We used to be really good friends, but you know, stuff happens. I liked to keep it because I thought it was cute, but I get where you’re coming from,” you hummed.

Cherry looked away, still uncomfortable about the thing. Then he heard a sound followed by a THUD and jerked backwards. You stood over a trashcan, lid still open and the object was no longer in your hand. His eyes were wide as he quickly jerked back towards you.

You grinned more than anything at just how shocked and in awe the little bitty seemed to be.

His eyes teared slightly, staring at you, but his expression soon cracked into the hugest grin you’d seen on him yet. He threw himself at you and held on even tighter, laughing happily. “You’re the best Mama in the world!”

 

The rest of the tour was much less eventful given that there were so very few rooms left to explore. You turned on all the lights, showed him the front door and right outside the apartment, warning him never to go outside without you. Then walked down the hallway which led to only two more rooms. The bathroom on one side and the bedroom on the other.

By the time he’d gotten to see everything, you returned back to the kitchen to see how the food was. It seemed cool enough and you gave him free rein on just digging into the tray with his hands and eating whatever he wanted. He wasn’t so eager for the chicken but did eat quite a bit of the mashed potatoes and brownie.

After dinner was done you let him wash his hands in a small bowl. It was supposed to be for sake, you’d bought it in your weeb days, but now you mostly used it for things like ranch dressing, honey mustard, or soy sauce. You threw it in the sink when he was done and the empty tray into the trashcan.

You walked the rooms and turned off all the lights, pausing between the bathroom and bedroom. You contemplated it for a moment and turned to the bathroom, deciding to brush your teeth before bed.

_’Set a good example,'_ you think, _’he’s got to take care of himself too.’_

Cherry is still held to your chest as you brush your teeth and brush your hair out before bed. You end up having to sit Cherry down so you can braid your hair but he whines and you end up not doing it.

“Alright, Cherry, we’re going to brush your teeth!” You hum taking out a spare toothbrush you had just on the off chance you had a visitor. But it looked too big to even fit near his face. You hum and decide to butcher the poor brush with some scissors until you have just a small section to scrub with. Smudging a little bit of toothpaste onto it you tell Cherry to grin real big for you. He does and it is the cutest thing to watch him sway a little while you brush out his teeth.

“Alright open up,” you hum, leaning down and being extra careful. You can exactly fit the brush inside his mouth like you would, but keeping in to the side manages to do something if he bit down a little.  “Alright now spit it out into the sink and let’s rinse your mouth out.” 

Doing that was even more of a hassle without a small cup. He ended up using your hand to get water and after you’d dried his face off he grinned up at you looking so proud. “All clean!” he exclaimed.

You grinned back and kissed his head. “All clean!”

Heading back to the bedroom you both settled back in bed. He was all curled up in his awkwardly large shirt next to you and you both just looked at each other for a while.

His eyelids drooped a little.. eyelids? Man, magical little skeletons sure were cool and he looked so sleepy. “Mama..?” He asked you quietly, your heart swelled with pride.

“Yes Cherry?” You asked, covering him with a corner of the blanket. He scooted closer and hugged your face, mostly your nose, and nuzzled close.

“Thank you for picking me.”

You grinned at this and leaned up, peppering little kisses all over his face. You couldn’t help but giggle before speaking, “and thank you for choosing me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter just didn't want to be written, and then suddenly I was able to pump out 3/4 of it in one morning! Wowwie!
> 
> Please make sure to comment! It help's me write faster!
> 
> Or hit me up on Tumblr! That helps so much too!  
> http://leenazenyo.tumblr.com/


	6. Rain Drops

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back, back again? Leena's back-- uh I swear I'm not dead or anything I just. Uh.. School. uh.  
> HERE TAKE SOME BITTYBONES -throws-

The great thing about bitties is that they can go with you everywhere, and that’s just what Cherry did. All around the house, the occasional trip to the store, in your bed while you slept. He stayed in your arms while you both ate, while you did dishes, while you watched TV—  

Actually, the list would be much shorter to say where he wasn’t willing to follow you. Which would be nowhere. You hadn’t had a personal bubble since he’d come home. Not that you minded, no you loved your little Cherry. He was the sweetest little thing and you were just so _sad_ when you’d upset him.  

It’d been nearly a week and you hadn’t been separated from your tiny little partner. If he wasn’t being held, he was on your shoulder, your chest, your lap, or in the little sling you ended up making so you wouldn’t jostle him around while you walked. He still cried when you’d set him down so you just… didn’t.  

Now this was a massive problem and as you sunk into the bed with your little bitty laying on the pillow next to you you realized it. Tomorrow you’d have to return to college or risk having to drop all your classes. As it was you’d taken a…. “personal health week”. You’d gotten Cherry on Friday and just stayed home with him for an entire week, plus Saturday and Sunday now. You were worried how Cherry was going to take it. 

You’d casually brought it up a few times, but you weren’t sure he _got_ it. Closing your eyes, you mindlessly ran your fingers up and down his little skull, thinking about the sleeping bitty. He’d cheered up a lot and seemed almost completely relaxed around you when you both were just around the house. It was nice, things had been calm and you hadn’t really worried about anything. It’d been so long since you felt that way and you truly felt Cherry was serving his purpose. You’d needed a little companion that you could love on when you were low. And Cherry happened to have all the love in the world to give to you. He was perfect… 

 

 

You woke up the next morning before you even knew it to your alarm clock which you hadn’t had set since you’d gotten your little bitty. You both jumped slightly, him more so than you as you reached over and turned it off, groaning. Cherry stared at your clock with wide eyes and scooted back against you. “Mama what was that for?” he asked nervously.  

“Alarm clock,” he grumbled, sitting up and stretching out a bit. There was a loud pop and you groaned, relaxing back into bed. “I have to go to school, remember Cherry?”  

He clearly didn’t, just staring at you.  

The morning routine was a little off as you hauled Cherry about. You both had a small piece of toast, his being a corner of your own piece cut off just for him, and got dressed. You were completely ready for school within half an hour and where about ready to head out the door. This time though, you also picked out a small baby doll bottle of juice out of the fridge and a tiny sandwich, bringing it to the bedroom and sitting them and Cherry back down on the bed. You hesitated before actually letting go of him and he panicked slightly looking up at you nervously.  

“Wait… I don’t.. .get to go with you?” Cherry asked you as he scooted over to try and get you to pick him back up again. 

“I’m sorry sweetie, I can’t risk anyone taking you. There’s a lot of people, you could get lost, or hurt,” You replied quickly.  

 _Or stolen, or you could be kicked out of class, or everyone could make a big deal about him being there, or you could be blamed for his injury…_  

You shook the thoughts out of your head as he began crying.  

“Oh Cherry, sweetie.. It’s okay I promise; I’ll be back as soon as my classes are over. It’ll be okay. Here I’ll even leave my cellphone with you, that way you can play games all day? How is that? And you’ll be right here on this nice big comfy bed and everything will be great, right? It’ll be okay honey, I promise.” You tried your best to console him without picking him back up because you knew if you did you wouldn’t be able to put him back down.  

He cried even louder now and you just felt worse. If you couldn’t leave him alone during the day what were you going to do? Maybe you shouldn’t have given into him and carried him around everywhere, but what were you _supposed_ to do? The bitty refused to walk on his own. At this point you weren’t even sure if he was hurting, yet he refused to even _try_ walking on both legs.  

Taking a deep breath you smiled all the same. “Cherry, I’m sorry.. I have to go. I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can. You be good okay?” You pulled away, doing your very best to slip out of the room and not be convinced to return. Closing the door almost silently, you could still hear him crying inside of the room and with a heavy heart made your way out of the apartment. 

Cherry was his own little person, not a pet. He could handle being alone for a few hours while you went to classes. Everything would be fine. It’s not like he would go anywhere. Your poor bitty was nearly incapable of doing so.  

You swallowed hard as you got in your car and carefully made your way to classes. This was fine. Everything was fine.  

 

 

The moment you walked out of the apartment there was nothing but crying for a solid ten or twenty minutes before Cherry settled down. His human was no longer here. But she had to come back eventually right? This was her home. He was in _her_ home. His home? Maybe it was his home too.  

“You be good okay?” He repeated out loud and looked around the bed. She had left him her phone with a sticky note with the passcode. Earbuds were still plugged in, not that he could use them. Behind him sat the lunch she’d made for him, it would be room tempature by the time he got to eat it. He frowned at that, tearing up.  

After another short fit of crying at the lack of his lunch, or at least a cold one, he turned back to the phone. Cherry rubbed his tired, itchy eyes and immediately settled as he unlocked the phone and started playing some little app. He’d really gotten into some sort of app about farming, he’d told his new human all about how good he was doing and she praised him every time. 

He really liked this human. She was very kind to him, fairly soft spoken and always pet him. She was so warm to lay against, and always so gentle. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to fall asleep so easily. He’d felt so much more relaxed since he got here.  

Thinking back to the shop, it was so loud all the time. He could still hear the bell as people walked in and out. The people were always talking and the kids squealed and banged on the glass or reached in when he was in the pen. He hated that pen more than anything else. Little humans would reach in and grab him or any of the bitties that were close to the edge. He usually tried to stay against the wall that against another pen, but sometimes humans could still reach in and grab him. They were never as gentle as _his_ human. Usually he was in his own personal little.. well, he wasn’t sure what it was called really. They put some shavings down and it was like a glass box, except there were boxes on top of him and all around him, and people could see inside. He never got to be alone except at night. But sometimes nights were even worse. 

The shop didn’t only carry bitties. There were dogs, cats, any kind of rodent you could imagine, birds, fish, some green things that ate bugs, and then there were bigger bugs. He liked the fish though, those were pretty and he liked watching them when he got a chance. He’d just barely been able to see some of the glowing tanks at night and it set him at ease sometimes. Of course, that hadn’t really stop some of the other bitties from escaping the cage and causing mayhem across the store at night.  

Cherry remembered being constantly woken up by the sounds of squawking birds, angry dogs, and bitties cheering. There was a small group of bitties that would constantly manage to get out of their tanks and create chaos around the store. One in particular was an Edgy bitty who had taken an odd liking to him. Cherry couldn’t remember when it had started, but that bitty had constantly snagged him from his tank and tried to get him to do things around the store. “Fun things” he remembered, like being dropped into the cage with all the mice or the time where he was put in the cage with the puppies.  

He shuddered at the thought and tried to push it to the back of his head. He didn’t want to think about the other bitties laughing or just how loud that bird had been when they’d opened up the cage and let it fly around. Cherry really didn’t like loud sounds. He didn’t like those other bitties either. Especially not that Edgy, he hoped that Edgy never got adopted— 

His gaze focused back on the phone at a pitched _ding_ sounding out in the quiet. It looked like he’d run out of all he could do in the game for the next couple hours, so he closed out of it and looked around the bed for something to do. There was the phone.. the food.. and uh, pillows. He hummed quietly, furrowing his brow bone. He took the phone, scooting it over towards the pillows so he could prop it and himself up and he could just watch something online. After about an hour of watching some kids play games he settled on fixing the earphones to lay on either side of his skull and just playing music. It was boring, but relaxing. About half an hour into that he got up and ate his lunch. As expected it was warm. The juice didn’t taste right at all and while the sandwich was mostly okay, he wasn’t sure he enjoyed warm mayonnaise.  

He took a short nap after lunch and then listened to more music until the phone’s battery drained to nothing. Cherry’s eyes opened slowly. He’d nearly dozed off while things autoplayed on YouTube. That’s when he heard something. He perked up, sitting up immediately and crawling to the other side of the bed. There had been a slight rumbling. Was his mama sneaking through the hallways? Or had she thought he was asleep and was rummaging through some drawers? He grinned eagerly and squeaked.  

“Mama? Are you home?? Welcome home!” he called as loud as he possibly could with his tiny voice. He was so excited! Mama was home, they could cuddle up together! Maybe she’d read him a book! Or they could use the laptop and watch more videos together. He would have to tell her all about the wonders of Minecraft and suggest she play. He could teach her all about how to make wooden weapons and— 

His train of thought stuttered when he heard the pitter pattering of rain on the window. He tilted his head, processing the sound as a flash of lightening lit up the room. When had it gotten so dim? He blinked a few times, easily distracted by the thought until the apartment rumbled loudly.  

At this he frowned, eyelights dimming. His gaze shifted back to the door, the slow realization that his human was indeed not home starting to weigh on him. He sat there, loneliness crashing over him like heavy waves and he started sobbing again. He didn’t understand why she wasn’t home yet. He didn’t understand why he had to stay here, or why she couldn’t stay here. Sure she had tried to explain it to him over and over again this past week, but he didn’t think it would feel like _this_. 

Slowly he crawled back to the middle of the bed and curled up on himself. He didn’t know how long it would take for her to get back, she’d been gone for hours and he just wanted her back so badly. His despair was cut short when a louder rumble of thunder sounded through the house. He yelped, suddenly hyper-aware not only of the fact that he was alone, but there was a storm brewing outside. Watching in horror as the storm only got louder and more violent he cried out for his human, scrambling to hide under pillow and blanket, shaking. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took so long to update! I've already started on the next chapter so uh, I should be updating semi-regularly I hope?  
> Please comment if you're still around with what you thought of this chapter!  
> Also special thanks to TheSinBubble here on Ao3 and Tumblr for proofing!  
> and hit me up on tumblr sometimes! I like talking! http://leenazenyo.tumblr.com/


	7. Let's Go

You were in the middle of your last class for the day with over an hour remaining when the storm hit. It was bad enough to make the lights on campus flicker and that worried you. Sure it was an old building but the thunder was _loud_. You quickly collected your books and bravely set out for the road.

Okay maybe it wasn’t as bravely as you thought. You wouldn’t admit to jumping or yelping at every loud clap of thunder and you certainly wouldn’t admit to being almost deathly afraid of thunderstorms in general. Nope, not you!

Of course, this took a back-burner as you ran out into the rain towards your car. You screamed and cried as another loud crack sounded too close for comfort and nearly tripped in the rain. You would be the first with that with the cobblestone brick of your campus, there were far too many people who tripped on a normal day. Add rain and it was even worse. People tended to fall down steps, trip on flooded areas they thought were even, or just decide ‘Screw being on the bricks I’ll risk the ground!’ just to trip over a root or on slick moss or grass. It wasn’t a very rain friendly school. But you managed to escape the day without any damage.

Once you were in your car, you took a moment to settle your nerves and turned the heater on full blast to warm up. It wasn’t that cold outside but rain never seemed to be warm either. You shuddered, pulling your shirt away from your stomach and chest and let it drip out a little. Your mind shifted to Cherry at home and how scared he must be. You’d been worried sick about him all day but surely he was fine right? You’d managed to convince yourself of that, at least until it started raining outside.

Just being home alone for a bit wouldn’t hurt him. He had entertainment, he had food and something to drink, and he was comfortable. The only thing he didn’t have was.. well.. you.

Your heart sunk at the idea once again and you closed your eyes tight. Sure you’d missed a ton of class, but was it really fair to leave him all on his own like that? He probably felt abandoned and maybe even hated you for leaving him. You closed your eyes tightly for a moment and flinched as another crack of thunder shook the car, so you set the car in drive and headed home.

Cherry must have been terrified of this storm. He was so small, so frail. He jumped even when you made loud sounds so why would he be okay in this? You felt like such an idiot, how could you have not paid attention to something like this. Don’t normal people check the weather every day or something like that? You groaned and shook your head. Stupid stupid!

You parked, barely slamming the door closed in your haste and made for the stairs lining the outside wall. This time you slipped on the smooth pavement as you turned a set of stairs, but you scrambled up anyhow and managed to get your key out. You push open the door and yelp just as you see a flash of lightning nearby and a loud crack to follow, yanking your key out and slamming the door behind you. Everything you hold is tossed aside as you sprint to the bedroom, skidding just past your door. You make it in and look everywhere.

“Cherry? Cherry baby, where are you?” you ask tearing pillows and sheets off the bed. He wasn’t there. Your bitty wasn’t there. _Your bitty was not on the bed._ You wheeze, tearing everything off the bed. The phone goes flying somewhere against the back wall, the bed is stripped. You spin a circle looking around. Cherry didn’t walk, if he wasn’t on the bed he’d fallen off, or someone had taken him. _Someone had taken your Cherry_. You couldn’t breathe, you didn’t.

That’s when you heard the faint sound of crying. Your eyes widened and you dropped to your knees, squinting through the darkness until you spotted the pinpricks of red. Then you slid onto your stomach and scooted over to reach for the shivering bitty.

“Cherry, Cherry sweetie come here, it’s okay. I’m here, I’m here, I’m going to keep you safe okay, shh shh, come here..!” you coaxed as gently as you could in your panic, worming your way closer and eventually cupping the bitty in your hands.

Cherry seemed to register your presence then, his eyelights lighting back up to their normal warmth and he looked up at you with teary sockets.

“Mama..?” he whispered, reaching for your face. It took him a moment to register that you really were there, before he wailed, “Mama!”

He tripped out of your hands and crawled until he was against your face, sobbing big bubbly tears and clung to you. You laughed thickly, barely holding back tears of your own as you held him close and nuzzled against him, shifting his entire body along with it.

“I-I was so scared—“ he choked out gripping your skin to the point of pain.

You pulled back out from under the bed with him still refusing to leave his spot on your face.

“I-I was so scared a-and t-th-th-th-th—e s-sounds wouldn’t s-s-stop—“ he cried out clinging even tighter and shaking his head, “You w-w-weren’t here!”

Your heart breaks even more at that, you sniffle and nod sadly.

“I’m so sorry sweetie… I didn’t know it was going to storm.. I was so worried about you, I came home as soon as I could. It’s okay, it’s okay.. I’ll never let it happen again okay? It’s okay…It’s okay..”

For the rest of the day you bundled your little bitty close and didn’t leave his side, thinking about ways to fix this in the future.

 

 

The next morning you skip class again. After barely sleeping at all last night, you ended up sleeping in until ten before Cherry nuzzled up to your face with a quiet little “Mama?” and tried to wake you up. Your mornings lately always included about ten minutes of just cuddling while you tried to wake up.

That was another good thing you found about having Cherry. Mornings weren’t unbearable anymore. You didn’t sit there for an hour too miserable to get yourself up. In fact, with Cherry there you were _excited_ to be woken up. It was a fantastic few minutes full of silence aside from the occasional hum or purr as you nuzzled and pet your little bitty, and he giggled and cuddled you right back. He seemed the most relaxed in the morning right next to you. Even after that nightmare.

He’d even let you sleep in, which was surprising. Now you’d heard that ‘Sans’ type bitties, which apparently Cherry was, loved sleeping in. But your Cherry didn’t care. If he so much as noticed you stirring he was scooting over and peppering you with kisses and cuddles until you finally sat up and were ready to start your day.

You loved it. You loved everything about Cherry. You really did.

As you spent your early few minutes cuddling your bitty, your mind traveled back to thoughts from last night.

There was no way you could leave Cherry alone like this. It wasn’t really fair to him was it?

You remembered how lonely you were, how you had _needed_ Cherry. So why would you make Cherry stay alone?

At least that was your thought process. It wasn’t fair to Cherry to do this to him, you needed to be a responsible ~~owner~~ caretaker and do what was best for him. You’d decided this last night already. It was going to… perhaps not be ideal from now on. But for Cherry’s sake you would do it.

 

The morning went pretty quickly. You enjoyed breakfast and got you both all dressed up. His clothes from before were cleaned and dry and you hopped in the car with him.

“Mama where are we going?” He asked from your shoulder, looking out the window at every little thing you passed.

“We’re going to the store,” you reached up and rubbed under his chin. He cooed at that, giggling as you pulled away and with a nod he hummed, kicking one foot back and forth from his spot on your shoulder. He was just happy to go with you, didn’t really matter what you both were going for.

The drive was fairly quiet after that. You found that you both could settle in a comfortable silence in most cases. As long as there was physical contact you were peachy.

Cherry tensed up, clinging to your neck as you pulled into the parking lot . You’d parked close enough that you could just barely hear the dinging of the door as another customer walked in.

“M-mama..?” He asked, voice shaking as he looked at you with already watery eyes, his breath caught in his throat, and he choked out a cry.

_She was bringing him back_ _to the pet store_ _._

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for short chapter, wanted to have it out before finals though!  
> Remember comments are love <3  
> Ty for TheSinBubble for Proofing~
> 
> Hit me up on Tumblr if you feel up to it :D I love it~ LeenaZenyo.tumblr.com


	8. I Choose You, Bittybones!

Cherry had completely frozen up, eye lights going blank as he realized where he was.

_The Pet Store._

“So.. I was thinking. I know _I_ don’t like being alone.. and I really don’t like the idea of leaving you alone either, so here’s the deal..” you trail off, watching him. This was supposed to be a good surprise, but you couldn’t be surprised how he was reacting.

Cherry was looking at you like you betrayed him, like you were about to abandon him all of a sudden. Return him back to the shop and never come back again. For a split second he tuned you out, eye sockets going dark.

He didn’t want to be left alone here—he didn’t want to go back in there, _it was so loud_ _-_

“Cherry?” you asked softly, nudging him and startling him out of whatever line of thought he had going on. His eyes watered and he stumbled to you, clutching at your top.

“P-please don’t bring me back Mama—I’ll be good, I don’t want to go in there—“ he sobbed. You immediately picked him up and cradled him to your chest, rubbing his spine and hushing him.

“You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to, I just figured you’d be excited to help me find a new brother for you.” You smiled down at him watching his sobs slow to a halt. His eyelights grew wide as he looked up to you, trying to figure out what you meant.

“New b-brother..?” he asked.

“Mmhmm,” you hummed, sitting him in your lap and still gently petting him.

“Well… you don’t like being alone do you? You always want someone to hold you, and that’s okay, so I figured... instead of forcing you to be alone for most the day while I’m at school, why not.. adopt another bitty?”

His mouth opened into a slight “O” shape, but no words came out, so you continued.

“I read that bitties do best in pairs so.. uhm. Surprise!” You grinned, “I’m still not sure what I’ll be looking for, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out when I’m there, right?”

The stunned silence continued, though Cherry’s eyes now sparkled with curiosity. You wiped away the remaining wetness clinging to the edges of his sockets before he slowly nodded, eyes drifting off to the side as he imagined what kind of bitty his new brother would be. He still didn’t really want to go inside, but he was more than excited have someone else around.

“A new brother, just for me,” he cooed with a bright smile on his face. “Let’s do it!”

 

You ended up walking to the store without Cherry. He was too nervous to go inside which was completely understandable given what he’d been through before. Of course, when you decided to come back to this pet shop it wasn’t necessarily because it had been the only option nearby.

You were sure there were nicer places around, but maybe that’s why this was the best choice.

Cherry’s brother would just be another ‘rescue’! After all if they were going to put down Cherry because he was hurt then what sort of other bitties may not have a chance for the same reason? Though, you kind of hoped this next one would be a little more capable of doing his own thing. Poor Cherry was somewhat difficult to handle on his own.

You shook the thought off and held your head high as you marched right up to the front door, pushing it open with that annoying BING BONG sound that set Cherry off.

The overpowering odor of uncleaned cages and a generally unkempt environment washed over you. Had you been so out of it last time that you didn’t even notice it _burning_ your eyes? Bleh. You felt your heart go out for all the animals and little bitties here.

“Hello, welcome to the Pet Place, home of the places of pets, can I help you find your perfect pet today?” one of the employee’s asked in the most unenthusiastic voice from the cash register.

You blinked, caught off guard. Had you been greeted last time you were here?

_Focus! This isn’t what you came here to think about!_

“Yes, I’m here to find a Bi-itty please?” you swallowed hard, suddenly feeling much less confident than you had before. Ohhh, what were you doing..?

Originally you’d come here looking for a pet and ended up with Cherry. Somehow he didn’t quite evoke the same fear you had when it came to seeing bitties, but the sudden realization you’d be near a bunch of bitties at once threw you into a panic, your breath quickening and pulse loud in your ears.

“Ma’am?” the employee asked from the entrance to the bitty area, crossing his arms as he waited for you.

You’d frozen but quickly followed after him. You didn’t want to look at them.. let’s not look at them.

Closing your eyes for a moment you remembered how excited Cherry was and took a deep breath. Cherry needs this. Cherry needs a friend. He needed someone to be with him so he wasn’t alone.

But what kind of bitty would be best for him? He was a Sans type right? So maybe a Papyrus type bitty would be best. Out of the main types you researched there were five.

Papys, Bosses, Little Bros, Meeks, Poppys.. Oh and Teacups right? Something about teacups made you uncomfortable. They were a little too much like a cat.

A Boss or a Meek wouldn’t do well either. You needed a bitty to take care of him, not to be an alpha or even more timid than Cherry.

Papys, Little Bros, and Poppys seemed okay though. While you hadn’t heard much about Poppys you knew Papys and Little Bros were very protective of their charges. One was better at taking care of a home and one was better at taking care of people.

But how cute would it be to have him with another Sans type? They would both be small, you wondered if the one you adopted would be chubby. Cherry didn’t have a tummy to speak of, but that was okay, because it made him feel even smaller.

Right right, Sans types. Sansy, Baby Blues, Edgys, Cherrys.. You knew you were missing one but you didn’t want to think about that one right now. Of course you couldn’t pick another Cherry, and for the same reason you didn’t think Boss would be good for him, you couldn’t bring yourself to pick an Edgy. Baby Blues were super cute, they also had habits more like a Papy type bitty being the whole house and home type bitty, but you’d heard they were also more hyper. Hmm maybe they wouldn’t be a best bet. Sansys were super chill, great for people with anxiety, but were prone to their own fits of depression. But that wouldn’t matter because he was for _Cherry_ not for _you_.

Then you couldn’t help but your mind tracing over that other type of bitty..

_Softy_

You started scratching your arms and exposed skin, feeling itchy and uncomfortable. You thought about that little bitty in your hand. Sopping wet, water pouring from its mouth, eye sockets, and nasal hole.

 _How long had he been trying to get your attention.._?

You quickly reached up and smacked your cheeks. You couldn’t do that to yourself, a Softy was not an option for you. You just.. you couldn’t deal with the guilt.

But there were new types being mentioned around weren’t they? Something about a Yunyun or a Blackberry? Hmm, best not get something you didn’t know about. They were always coming out with new bitties weren’t they?

“Instead of looking, can you tell me which bitty has been here the longest?” you asked suddenly instead. Why not let fate decide? You weren’t very good at choices anyway. He paused in the isle and shrugged. Turning a corner, you walked past a pen of bitties. None looked too happy, but they were wandering and aimlessly chatting. As you walked past they perked up for a moment and then settled back down realizing you weren’t going to play with them.

Honestly that felt pretty bad too, they were tiny and cute.. but you could feel your stomach tying in knots. But why were you walking towards the puppy cages?

You furrowed your brow as he opened the door to the weird glass room that seemed to hold the cages and knelt next to two particularly large ones.

The moment you walked in you heard whispering, it was somewhat quiet and quick but seemed entirely one sided. The second the employee stepped past the first two cages it stopped.

“These two have been here since I’ve started working. Ehh, mostly. This one gets adopted, but he always gets returned, we have to keep ‘em back here since they’re too big to fit with the others.”

You peeked into the two cages to see two rather large bitties slumped over and lethargic in the back. Both were at least three times bigger than the normal size. One you pegged immediately as a Papy type bitty, but judging by how much he crouched down in the cage you guessed him to be almost three feet tall.

You didn’t know bitties could _get_ that big. After a few moments he seemed to notice you and his eyes lit up. He crawled forwards on his hands and knees and put his boney fingers to the cage door, holding it and trying to push his fingers through as if to touch you. He looked so curious, so incredibly hopeful as he looked you in the eyes.

Smiling at him you couldn’t help but feel just… comfortable around him. He seemed sweet. Reaching forward you took his hand, feeling the bone against your own fingers. He was gentle and curious, but more so he seemed to want you to not move away.  
“Hey there,” you said softly and watched his face immediately perk up. Now he had both hands holding onto your fingers and crawled closer to the cage door. He bounced a little before moving to reach through as well, but the bars were just so small; it couldn’t have been comfortable.

Looking him over again his bones looked much duller than Cherry’s did. You didn’t see any food in there and the water was in a half empty dog bowl. The clothes he wore looked like little kids clothes that weren’t quite his size, a long orange t-shirt that had long since lost its sheen and his shorts were short enough that it looked like he didn’t even have on pants at all.

You noticed how tired his little eyes looked, tired yet there was some excitement as he held onto you, watching you with wonder that you were focusing on him however briefly.

“May I open the cage?” you questioned employee, who was just hovering around you. He shrugged nonchalantly and motioned you to, “Do whatever.”

Immediately when you opened the cage and the bitty crawled out and into your lap, wrapping his arms around you and clinging like a small child that was just getting picked up to preschool.

Your heart fluttered imagining being greeted like this every time you came home. He and Cherry would be waiting the last fifteen minutes just _knowing_ you’d be coming home any minute now. You’d open the door followed by two excited squeaks of “Mama!” and held before you could even get into the living room. They’d tell you how their day went and ask how you were feeling, they’d cuddle you as you settled down from a long day of school. You’d all be happy and Cherry wouldn’t be lonely anymore.

The papyrus bitty had relaxed in your arms and only part of the way through your day dream had looked back up at you as if reading you. He smiled, mouth opening as if to ask you something. He was so innately curious, you could see it on his face, but his teeth clicked shut and he decided to just reach up and pet your hair instead. It was fluffy and he liked the feeling. You leaned down to let him play with it more, just to end up staring into the other cage.

That one had been silent the whole time. He was wearing something similar to Papy but it was blue and looked entirely like a little dress it was so big on him. The way he was just slumped in the back of the cage made you uncomfortable. He looked like he barely had the energy to sit up on his own, much less try to interact with you like this Papy had.

“That Sansy was having some behavior issues, so he’s had some medicine to calm him down. Normally he doesn’t like anyone getting near the cages. I wouldn’t say he’s aggressive... but he’s pretty damn—er I mean pretty darn smart and protective,” The employee explained, leaning against the door, “he has been adopted plenty of times though, every one of them brought him back because he was too much for them to handle.”

You frown at that and lean over putting your hand on the bars. His eyelights are just barely active enough to seem to shift towards you. He reached forward towards your hand and he had this utterly desperate look that you couldn’t quite place.

This pet store had drugged him because he was upset…? Had no one tried to just talk with him or spend time with him to get him to relax? Your heart broke for him.

The Papy shifted out of your lap, kneeling in front of the cage now. He tapped it a few times and looked back at you almost desperately, begging you to release the other bitty as well.

Well… you couldn’t exactly say no to that.

Turning back to the worker you chewed your lip and fidgeted a bit.  
“I’d like to hold him, the Sansy, please,” you asked, looking to the cage again. They looked easy enough to unlock.

“Uhh, sure, his medicine may kick in though so he’ll probably fall asleep on you, or whatever, but do what you want,” He shrugged again motioning to the cage.

You and the Papy perked up and quickly undid the latch, reaching forward into the cage. “Hey there,” you smiled plucking him from the cage with no trouble. He was surprisingly light for how big he was. Almost two feet tall it seemed. You held him in your lap and noted the Papy immediately coming over and sitting beside you looking over the Sansy with concern.

His bones were just as dull as the Papy’s and he stared up at you almost looking dizzy. You’d read up on bitties last night. Sansys were protective, relaxed, and generally very sweet. They were good companions for those who had more than one bitty and were even better for those who take frequent naps.

Well it wasn’t exactly naps, but you didn’t mind the idea of having a bitty that was actually a decent size to hold in your arms. Not to mention he could help Cherry out quite a bit.

His eyes flickered a light blue, trying to keep himself awake. His browbones furrowed slightly, reaching up again. His eyelights flickered blue and then out before his hand fell back onto his stomach cavity and he was out like a light. You smiled at that and reached up, rubbing his cheek.

He was so cute..

With him asleep though you decided to gently shift him back into his cage and closed it again. The Papy frowned slightly, something you didn’t think looked right on his face.

“So..” you started out, looking to the Papy. After a few moments of standing at the door of the cage he turned back to look at you again.

“Um..” Oh boy was it warm in this room, “What do you think of uhm.. maybe uh..” Just say it, say you want to take him home! You fidgeted a bit, nervously before the Papy smiled warmly at you and quickly clambered up into your arms again holding you tightly before sliding down and pressing his head to your chest. Somehow the gesture made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, like he was just full of every good thing.

He was just the perfect size to hold. He was so cute, so sweet, so perfect to come home and be a part of your family.

And then he whispered something to you. Something so quiet you almost weren’t entirely sure you’d heard him right. He leaned back, crawled off your lap, and went back into the cage, curling up against the side of it that was closest to the Sansy. The Sansy just barely roused himself at being close to the Papy again and with what looked to be all the energy he had left, curled up against the same wall. If you looked at them at the right angle, it almost looked like they were curled up together in one big cage.

“Alright, I’ve made my choice,” you said quietly, looking at the small bundle of bitties.

 

“I’m going to adopt… this Sansy.”

 

_Please let him stay this time. Please let this human keep him…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaay a new chapter~! Sorry for it taking so long!  
> So who were you rooting for her to get~?
> 
> Special thanks to TheSinBubble for proofing for me!  
> Hit me up on tumblr! I love to chat~ LeenaZenyo.tumblr.com


	9. Wake Up Sansy!

Surprisingly, you managed to get a discount on ~~buying~~ adopting Sansy. Which was great cause that meant you could get him some new clothes! You considered stopping by the store before getting home but scrapped that idea entirely. If he were to wake up in your car that would be pretty awful of you, plus you had Cherry. You paid and the employee who helped you before and he brought Sansy’s cage out to your car.

He _heavily_ suggested leaving him inside the cage until you were inside and settled in your home. A panicked bitty had a chance to run and while there was a wonderful return policy at the store (He REALLY stressed the return policy. ONE WEEK. You had ONE WEEK or you couldn’t return him for full price) it wouldn’t work if the Sansy was lost.

He tried going through the spiel about taking care of your new bitty, but the words were lost on you as you just tried to hurry up and get him to go back to his job ‘careing’ for the other pets there so you could leave. You knew Cherry was waiting in the car for you and you just couldn’t wait to show him his new big brother!

Once you’d gotten the cage into the back seat and finally got the employee to leave you alone for long enough you scooted over and sat in the back with your new Sansy and Cherry.

Cherry was practically vibrating with excitement as he reached forward from the front seat so you could bring him to the back. His eyes went wide looking over the big cage and as you brought him closer you were almost worried he’d try and jump onto the cage. Clearly he was considering the size of the other bitty, eager to make friends, learn his story, and why you decided to pick him. You held him close enough that he could hold the bars and thus their first interaction began.

“Hello, I-I’m Ch---ch—cherry!” he stuttered out from your hands. You could tell he was nervous but also incredibly eager. When his only reply was silence. It took a few moments for Cherry to understand Sansy wasn’t going to reply and he started to turn back to you with teary eyes. “Does he not like me Mama?”

You couldn’t help but smile as you brought your little boy up to your face and peppered little kisses around his cheeks. You were just as nervous about that as he was.

“He’s asleep, sweetie.. I don’t.. I don’t think they were treating him very well there. They gave him some sort of medicine and he’ll be really sleepy.. But you can watch him and keep him company back here until we get home. Can you do that for me?” you asked, setting him down and rubbing along his spine.

Cherry seemed to heavily question that and turned back to the Sansy for a few moments before determinedly nodding. Now it was his turn to judge the state of the bigger bitty. Slightly discolored bones, his magic felt off, and honestly he looked frail. This bitty had been through a lot and just at a glance Cherry could see all that.  
“Yes Mama! I’ll take good care of him!”  And with that the three of you headed home.

Getting home was easy, getting up the stairs to the apartment less so. You were so nervous about jostling Sansy that you nearly lost Cherry a few times trying to over correct yourself so you wouldn’t bang the cage against the cement steps. When you finally got inside you were exhausted. You swore this cage was heavier than the bitty inside.

Bitty. But Sansy wasn’t really that itty bitty was he?

You smile at that because somehow that makes him all the more perfect to have with Cherry. You needed to have someone who could take care of him. If Cherry didn’t want to walk than having someone who was at least somewhat capable of doing so in a decent manner would be best. This bitty had to be tall enough to reach your knees. He was _big_. You didn’t even know they got that big and the more you thought about it, the more you wondered if Cherry would get that big one day too.

You loved him small, but you didn’t mind the thought.

The rest of the day was spent setting a few things up for Sansy. You ended up shifting things around on your bed and making a pallet for him and Cherry to sleep on next to you. Then you altered one of your shirts to roughly fit him until you could get him some clean clothes.

It was just a plain blue T-shirt but you liked to think you did a good job of it. The pants on the other hand were a micro disaster. You’d tried to take this spandex material and make shorts out of it. You know, the kind that you’d wear to the gym. They ‘shrunk’ down to his size nice enough but trying to stitch together the elastic was a special kind of hell.

Well.. at least you’d tried. The shirt at least looked better than your first attempt with Cherry. With a shrug you brought it to the bathroom, laying it out with another set of Cherry’s clothes you’d made to match Sansy’s new shirt.

First thing was first. You took a deep breath looking over your set up and making a quick check list of things you needed. Clothes, towels, soap, washrags, toothbrush. If he was going to get clean clothes he was going to get a bath. That poor bitty’s bones were dull enough as it was, though at this point you were questioning whether it was from a lack of clean environment or simply a lack of nutritional balance. Perhaps tomorrow you’d go out and try to buy something substantial for them to eat.

_That was truly an amazing thought for you. You couldn’t cook, you struggled to leave the house.._

You went back and squatted by the cage where Cherry had been sitting peering inside the open door for any signs that Sansy was ready to wake up. Unfortunately, he still seemed to be knocked out cold.

“Come on, let’s go take a warm bath, okay?” you offered scooping up Cherry and setting him on your shoulder. He gripped lightly onto your hair and nodded.

“I’ve been watching him lots,” Cherry grinned, proud of himself, “we’re gunna take care of him right Mama?”

As you opened the cage and slowly and carefully pulled Sansy out and into your arms, just cradling him against you. He was still small, so light in your arms. It was kind of the equivalent to holding a cat on its back in your arms, only Sansy had completely ragdolled and clearly wasn’t awake. You were worried, and you could tell Cherry was too, or he wouldn’t have been so interested in him.

“Yeah, we are.”

 

The bath went easily enough. You sat in with them as Cherry peered over the edge of a little floating plastic Tupperware container. You kept Sansy upright in your lap, washing him off carefully, but very meticulously. He was much easier to wash up than Cherry.

“Gotta scrub you _down to the bone_ or we’ll never see those pearly whites,” you laughed quietly, talking to Sansy, even if he wasn’t awake or seemingly conscious right now. “You’ll feel much better when you wake up if you’re nice and clean.. Then we’re gunna bundle you up and you’ll be warm and comfy okay? And Cherry and I are going to stay with you until you feel better..”

Cherry grinned and paddled his little safety boat over until it bumped your leg. “Mama takes good care of me. She took me away from that place too. They were going to k-k- hurt me, and she saved me. S-so you don’t have to worry about that anymore!”

Gods, you were going to cry.

What you didn’t notice was Sansy’s eye lights lighting up just enough, looking at Cherry. Judging him and his words before slowly flickering out again as the drug kept him under.

 

Unfortunately it took longer than expected for it to wear off. You were really concerned after you’d finished up the day and Sansy hadn’t risen to eat something. You tried your best to wake him, you even let Cherry try his hand at it, but nothing worked. There had been a brief moment of panic when you were actually worried he was going to die. If he wasn’t waking up, what if they’d overdosed him, what if he was in a coma and couldn’t wake up, what if they had done this on purpose so he couldn’t find a home and that’s why he’d been in the shop so long?

You cried, Cherry panicked. Eventually he screamed at you in distress and within a minute the brief whirlwind of emotion was over. You were back to comforting Cherry, pacing a bit, and tried to relaxed yourself. Cherry asked you to sit him beside Sansy again and you wanted to cry, thinking he wanted away from you. But instead he leaned on the bigger bitty’s chest and listened. “He’s okay.. he’s got good magic flowing now.. I think he just can’t focus it well enough to do anything yet..”

Oh.. he was just checking on Sansy so you wouldn’t panic anymore.

Your eyes teared up a little and you nodded a bit, reaching down and pulling Cherry up to your shoulder and picking up the limp Sansy and cradling him in an arm. “Thank you..” you murmured softly.

The rest of the night was spent on the couch watching some dumb TV show until you tired out and then heading to bed where everyone was all kind of bundled together in a nice warm burrito.

You wouldn’t admit it, but you slept at lot better that night when you knew you didn’t have to worry about Cherry being alone. The thought didn’t cross your mind that the next morning Sansy still wouldn’t be awake.

 

You let Sansy sleep in a bit, thinking he was just sleeping in. That was fine, it was fine. You let Cherry lay with him a bit longer and went and attempted to make a breakfast of sorts. Well as much as a bagel with cream cheese counted as a decent breakfast by itself. You decided to also go ahead and make the boys some lunch. Just some really basic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but honestly you didn’t have much in the way of perishables. It was amazing you had the bagels and cream cheese.

So you brought the food back to the boys, only Sansy _still_ wasn’t awake. He wasn’t even stirring a little bit like he had when you first found him.

“That’s okay,” you spoke to Cherry, though you weren’t sure who you were trying to reassure, “He’s just tired. This was a big change, right?”

The two of you ate breakfast and you waited.. and waited..

Eventually you had to get ready for classes, so you did that as quick as you could. At least it was progress that Cherry was willing to be apart from you, right? He was so interested and worried over Sansy.

You waited and waited and waited some more..  
But Sansy still didn’t wake up.

Soon it was time for classes and you decidedly moved the boys onto the couch in the livingroom, turning on the TV and giving the remote to Cherry to change however he wanted. Your phone was plugged in if he wanted to watch Youtube and all the food you’d made earlier was put to one side of the couch.

You’d checked the weather and assured Cherry it wouldn’t storm before asking if he was okay staying home and watching Sansy for you. You hated the idea of leaving them alone together, but you didn’t even know if he was going to wake up before you got back home.

“It’ll be okay Mama, I’ll take good care of him!” Cherry insisted as he crawled into Sansy’s lap, leaning on him happily.

You weren’t sure if the feeling you got was utter adoration for the little bitty or complete relief that Cherry was going to be okay. Either way, you left them both with kisses and headed out.

 

 It was about mid-day when Cherry felt the other bitty stirring. His half asleep gaze shifted up to hear Sansy groaning as he rubbed his hand over his head. Cherry gasped, leaning back and looking up at him eagerly. “You’re awake!” Cherry shouted.

“shh.. shh buddy, not so loud..” Sansy groaned picking him up and setting him off his lap. His head was pounding and he was having trouble focusing on his surroundings.

“You’re home now, it’s okay,” Cherry spoke, this time much quieter, “Mama adopted you, you don’t have to be in that scary place anymore.”

Sansy took some time to process that. He looked down at the clothes, moved his fingers a bit feeling the lack of grit between his joints. Damn that felt really good..

“and pap?” he questioned blinking as he looked slowly to Cherry.

“Huh..?” Cherry tilted his head, confused. Sansy frowned a little.

Of course..

He looked back to the side of the couch were food sat.

“Oh yeah, Mama made those for us. If you want you can—“ Cherry started, but Sansy was already shoveling the food into his mouth almost like a starved animal. He ate one of the sandwiches as well, and fortunately left the smaller one for Cherry.

“I guess you’ve got it.” Cherry laughed almost awkwardly, “I’m really glad you’re feeling better, we were so worried you weren’t going to wake up—b-but you did a-and..—“

Sansy held up a hand. “look kid.. i dunno what kind of human you have, but you shouldn’t get used to it. none a this is gunna last.” His dull white gaze shifted to Cherry slowly shaking his head.

“Huh, what do you mean..?” Cherry furrowed his brows and scooted back a little bit.

“humans only like us for so long.. this.. whatever it is, for however long you’ve been with this human. it aint gunna last so save yourself some heart break, kid, get out of here as soon as you can.” Sansy explained as he wiggled his way off the couch, “and i’m really sorry about what’s to come alright, but i gotta do what i gotta do.”

Cherry didn’t even get a chance to respond before one of the picture frames on the wall was flung across the room and shattered to the ground loudly.

The smaller bitty flinched and his eyes grew wide and he looked at the broken frame confused and caught off guard. What was he doing? His attention jerked back to Sansy.

“No no! You can’t break Mama’s stuff!” Cherry cried out shaking his head and motioning for him to stop.

“this ain’t personal okay?” He grinned, picking up a small vase and throwing it up until it smashed against the ceiling. He wandered into the kitchen and crawled up onto the table, opening all the cabinets looking around and actively picking and choosing which ones to grab with his magic.

“Please! Please don’t do this! Please, Mama didn’t do anything wrong!” Cherry cried pushing off a pillow and falling off the couch onto it. He crawled and tried to stand, limping and falling to try and get to the kitchen, to try and stop the Sansy.

“yeah well i can’t afford to be that sentimental,” he grabbed a pot with blue magic and tossed it over onto Cherry, trapping him underneath the heavy metal. Soon after came the sounds of dishes shattering all around him.

 

 

You were in a great mood when you got home. You were eager to see if Sansy had woken up and even more eager to see if they had bonded at all. Everything was quiet inside though, and that put a bit of a damper on your hopes, but you quickly unlocked the door anyway. You’d been thinking about it all day and you had convinced yourself you’d made the right choice by adopting Sansy.

Those hopes were shattered, much like many of the objects of your home. You closed the door carefully behind you, looking around at the chaos that had ensued in your home. Your heart rate picked up in panic. Had the house been broken into..? Quickly you looked over the windows, the only place that someone could have gotten in through without have to scale three stories worth of building to climb in. You were barely processing all that for half a second before running in and practically skidding in front of the couch.

_The bitties, your bitties._

“Cherry?! Sansy! Where are you?? Boys??” You cried out, searching for them as thoughts of what could have happened crossed your mind.

It was quiet, too quiet until you hear the muted sound of something hitting against a pan and a weak cry that you couldn’t have heard until you got closer.

“Cherry!” You ran to the source of the sound, picking up a few different pots and pans until you found the one with Cherry under it in the middle of the floor with very little debris around it. He was a sobbing mess whimpering something you couldn’t understand and you quickly checked him over for wounds. Nothing.   
“Cherry what happened??” You questioned, panicked, “Where is Sansy?” Your questions were answered as a glass hit the wall beside you and shattered into pieces. You yelped, holding Cherry closer to you and looked up to see Sansy sitting on the counter with a few more objects in his magical hold.

“Sansy..?” You asked quietly, taking a step back. He threw another glass, this time at your feet. Causing you to jump back. Glass crunched beneath your feet as you tried processing what was happening.

“really.. it’s not personal, this just isn’t the right place for me,” Sansy spoke tilting his head and giving a bit of a strained grin, “i understand if you want to take me back.. you _really_ should've picked Pap.”

Your gaze shifted around between the kitchen and the living room, everything seemed destroyed. There was glass everywhere, your TV was flipped, your phone somehow managed to get into the kitchen. The table was on its side, your favorite dishes and cups were scattered every which way, just laying about on the floor. Your picture frames, what few you had, were busted, the pictures just resting awkwardly beside them. It was wrong.. everything was wrong.

Another glass shattered to the floor next to you. Cherry flinched and gripped on tighter to you crying again.

“your choice,” Sansy offered again.

Your head jolted back to him with wide confused eyes, what had gone wrong? What had you done to make him act out like this? He was so calm at the shop. He reached for you.

_You weren’t there when he woke up, he didn’t trust you._ _He didn’t want you._

“Okay.. okay.. we’re going back..” you whispered carefully, just loud enough he could hear you.

Sansy’s eyelights dimmed relaxing as he set the remaining glasses down. He slipped off the counter and walked through the kitchen, glass crunching beneath bare boned feet, into the living room and back to his cage, slamming the door shut of his own free will and locking it with magic.

You stared still holding your small companion to your shoulder protectively and took a deep breath. Within minutes you were heading back to the car with the cage in hand with Cherry once again clinging to you like his life depended on it.

_This was wrong._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy oh boy, No one ever said you'd get along with your new bitty. No one ever said it could go so wrong either.
> 
> So back to the Pet Store we go!
> 
> Also big thank you to the like three of you who poked me on Tumblr to write the next chapter! It REALLY helps!  
> I've had a lot of college stuff so it took a while, but Yaaay! Chapter up :D
> 
> Hit me up on tumblr! LeenaZenyo.tumblr.com


	10. Regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH wow two days and an update??? Hurray Miracles happen!

You drove with Cherry still crying in your lap for a majority of the ride while you tried to think about what you’d done wrong.

  1. You shouldn’t have left a bitty that you didn’t know well enough with Cherry.



That was a mistake you couldn’t afford to do again. Cherry came first, he got priority, no matter how much you wanted to take care of something or someone else.

  1. You shouldn’t have let Sansy wake up in an unfamiliar place.



Basically the same thing, but focusing on Sansy. He was clearly not treated well to begin with, so why would you think he’d just _be okay_?? Ugh, stupid stupid stupid.

You try and keep your focus on driving but your mind wanders, this time over the aftermath of your lack of thinking.

Glass everywhere.. you didn’t even know you had that much glass in the house. Everything was broken…

No. Not everything was broken.

Some of your more unique plates and cups were just… sitting about. There was no way any of them would have survived being tossed, especially when Sansy was so clearly trying to break things.

_They weren’t broken._ Come to think of it, some of the bigger items could have caused a lot of damage… But they didn’t because they appeared to have just been tipped over, or at least they weren’t thrown forcefully.

Had he done that on purpose? Just to make you think everything was busted?

The glass on the ground came from the few pictures frames, some simple plates and glasses.. well.. most of your casual set. You didn’t even remember your one set of fancy bowls and plates being scattered. Just everything else..

Then there was Cherry. You quickly flicked your eyes between him and the road. He wasn’t hurt. If he had been hit by any of those objects he’d be bleeding again. If he was pushed or thrown, that leg of his would have been bleeding. But.. he had just been under a pot… was it to protect him from the destruction?

You took a deep breath and wondered if this was why the pet shop worker had asked you to keep in him the cage… had insisted you understood the return policy. This had likely happened before.

Come to think of it, shouldn’t you have gotten papers regarding his history before this?

Ugh, all things that hardly mattered now.

As Cherry started to settle, sliding down deeper into your lap you couldn’t help but consider if Sans had been the right choice. You had tried to put it out of your mind how the Pappy bitty had just melted in your arms, starved of contact. How when he looked up at you you could still see so much hope in his sockets. It reminded you of Cherry, how Cherry had reached out for you.

You thought you felt the same thing when Sansy had reached towards you, but when it boiled down to it perhaps he had been trying to push you away? You took a deep breath, reaching up and tilting the rear view mirror to look back at the bitty in the cage. He was laying against the side of the cage, the one furthest from you. You realized it was the same position you had found him in at the store. Drugged out of his mind, leaning against the wall that allowed him almost contact with Pappy.

Your shoulders slumped imagining him going back to that. Imagining how that Pappy was slumped in on himself, alone, hopeful that his friend, his _brother_ , was doing okay. You couldn’t bare to see the look of disappointment when they came back, when you returned Sansy.

Pappy had asked you to take him. Asked you to take _care_ of him…

But.. you couldn’t, could you? Were you capable of giving Sansy that sort of patience? Were you capable of risking Cherry to attempt to help a bitty you didn’t know? This couldn’t be a split second decision, but damn it, it had to be. There wasn’t time to dwell or you wouldn’t risk just the rest of your possessions but possibly Cherry’s life, maybe even Sansy’s if things got too out of hand.

There was really only one logical option wasn’t there? You had to return to the pet store..

 

As you pulled up you readjusted the mirror and just sat there a moment. You had tears in your eyes, leaning against the seat and idly running shaky hands up and down Cherry’s spine thinking about the last time you’d let a bitty down.

You were crying then too weren’t you? You pinched your eyes closed taking in a shuddering breath, remembering that bitty from the dorms..

You could still hear the screams..

Hadn’t you sworn to protect Cherry though? This was protecting him, right? Fuck.. you thought you’d been doing so good…

Hesitantly you picked up the receipt from the passenger’s seat and unbuckled your seat belt.

“Cherry.. I’d like to take you inside with me okay? We’re..” you trailed off. You wanted to say you were going to get someone to haul Sansy in. You mentally didn’t think yourself strong enough to do so at this point.

Cherry was watching your every movement, huge eyes focusing on yours and trembling a little in your hands. He could see how hard this was for you.. maybe you were only bringing him in to comfort yourself, but Cherry shook his head and put a gentle hand on your fingers.

“I-i.. w-.. n-need to stay with S-s--.. Him..” He stuttered, gaze breaking from yours as he looked behind you to the Sansy’s hallow expression.

You looked down, brows furrowed slightly and shook your head slowly.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea Cherry.. for either of you,” you tried to explain quietly. You could tell Cherry was scared still and you didn’t want Sansy to do anything to hurt Cherry or himself. Not to mention having to say goodbye would.. be difficult, even if they hadn’t gotten attached to each other. Cherry had wanted to take care of Sansy, he was excited! It hurt all the more when Cherry just shook his head right back at you.

“I-I need to, Mama.. please..?” he begged you softly and leaned towards the back seat, silently asking to be placed there.

Your heart was racing and you hesitated to even move, much less turn around to look. You were here to return this bitty… to Abandon him just like everyone else had already, so wouldn’t this just be salt in the wound if you made him talk to Cherry now?

Still.. you were compelled to as you reached back and placed Cherry in front of the cage. Cherry needed to talk to him, for something he didn’t want you around for. So you’d obliged and opened up the car door with the quiet ‘ding ding’ of the pet store in the distance. Cherry shuddered and closed his eyes for a moment, looking visibly upset.

“I’ll be back… Okay?” you said quietly , barely any energy in your voice. “Don’t…” You trailed off.

What… Hurt each other? Yell? Your shoulders slumped and you shook your head stepping out of the car and shutting the door before making your way to the store.

The only thing you could think of was Sansy hadn’t said a thing or moved since he willingly walked back into the cage…

 

 

It was quiet for the first few minutes as Cherry looked into the cage. He was holding himself, knowing damn well if Sansy had decided to become violent again that he wasn’t going to have a place to hide easily in this car. Still he had so much to ask.. but he couldn’t manage to get his mouth to open.

So Sansy spoke first.

“kid, if you’re gunna try and get me to apologize then it’s not going to work.”

His voice was apathetic and Cherry couldn’t even see his eyelights.

“N-no—well… y-yes.. but not to me! M-mama didn’t deserve that! She worked hard for all her stuff and you j-just _c_ _-came_ in with no reason and destroyed it! Y-you didn’t have t-to do that!” Cherry retorted, eyes welling with translucent red tears, “Mama was good to you…”

“i know… and you’re right… but that aint gunna change what happened. and it had to be done, rather sooner than later,” he muttered quietly, shifting in his spot a bit to turn away from Cherry.

“No it didn’t! We were going to take care of you! Why did you want to come back here, they’re awful to you!” Cherry shook his head and crawled closer, hands gripping the cold metal bars tightly as his voice raised but didn’t get any steadier, “Mama chose you! She tried to feed you, she made you a bed to sleep next to us, she bathed you and made you clean clothes! S-she wanted to help you! So why would you do this to her??”

Sansy looked down slightly, noticing for the first time the nice thick material she’d made this shirt out of. It looked awful to be honest, he could tell it wasn’t store bought and had been made from someone very inexperienced. His false grin strained slightly as he let his hand fall.

“i told pap i would never leave him alone in that place…” he muttered, skull shaking the cage with the amount of force he’d put into leaning back, “so i had to come back… for him. doesn’t matter if i thought your human was a good person. hell, it wouldn’t have mattered if i thought she was the best human in the whole fuckin’ world. paps is more important to me and if she chose me over him, honestly, how great could she be?”

Cherry was appalled at that, he leaned back and cried, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe what was coming out of his mouth. “I-if y-you wa-anted to c-come back—y-you didn’t have t-to..!” he cried louder at that because damnit it was _his_ home too! Sansy looked back towards Cherry. He hated it.. he hated how much he hurt these two. he knew they didn’t deserve it.

But he couldn’t afford to care anymore.

He had to get back to his brother, he’d promised..

“M-mama told me h-he…” Cherry coughed, trying to calm down from his outburst, but ended up crying harder, “He told her to take YOU! He said you needed a safe place! He wanted you to be with a good human! S-she was gunna pick _Him_!”

Sansy jerked back at that, eye sockets wide and eye sockets flickering back on. “ _w h a t?_ ”

But Cherry was too overcome with grief and stress to continue so Sansy’s mind had to fill in the blanks. He hadn’t been chosen. Pappy had chosen you. You were going to adopt him. But Pappy wanted this human to..

A shaky hand covered his false grin, twitching slightly. He’d trusted this human.. chose her and for what? Suddenly the idea of him returning, seeing that crushing look on his face when his brother realized all of it was for nothing. Pappy could have been adopted and Sansy had just thrown it all away.

Blue translucent tears started filling his eyes and he was shaking, one eye fizzling out and the other flickering between blue and yellow. He’d fucked up. He’d fucked up royally. And now any moment that damn human, one of those constantly keeping him asleep was going to take him back.

His gaze shifted towards the store. Never before had he wanted to run from it before, never alone. But the idea tempted him immensely now and he suddenly panicked at the idea of being in this cage.

“S-sansy..?” Cherry asked, peering up at him with nervous tear-stained eyes.

The bigger bitty almost flinched, looking down. He took a few deep breaths to try to settle himself but he didn’t seem to be able to calm much. But it wasn’t escalating so he was alright.

“i’m really sorry…cherry… this old bag of bones really messed up…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got so much feedback last chapter that I just HAD to give you another chapter ASAP!   
> Keep it up dears, your comments feed me and keep me typing!
> 
> Feel free to hit me up on Tumblr! LeenaZenyo.tumblr.com


	11. No One Likes That Guy

When you came back in with that dead kind of look in your eyes, you think you heard the employee from the other day snicker. Yeah... of course, you were back. How often did he see this same thing happen over and over again. You walk over to the counter and place your receipt down in front of him, staring at it through grief-stricken eyes. What you were doing was wrong.. it wasn’t his fault. This wasn’t Sansy’s fault at all… so why—

“So do you want cash or credit lady?” the kid asked casually trying to pry the receipt from under your hand.

You didn’t understand a thing about this bitty.. but he was dangerous, right? He put Cherry at risk… kinda.

_No more than you had done leaving them both alone, or fuck.. right now in the car._

He was still trying to pull the receipt, you stared at your hand, watching him, holding onto it with a death grip. The moment your eyes went up to him you saw this… grin on his face.

He wanted him back.

_He wanted Sansy back._

You jerked the receipt back with this incredulous look on your face. How could someone look so eager to have a bitty returned, a bitty they were clearly abusing. Your mouth opened slightly in disbelief before you shook your head.

“I need to see that other big bitty. The Papyrus type? Pappy I think he’s called..” You stared at him, eyes not moving as he recoiled from you, surprised and confused at your sudden change in topic.

“Uhh? Yeah sure?” he questioned, grabbing his keys so he could get in the glass box that held their cages. You couldn’t help but think about it. These boys were put in these tiny crates.. tiny little things they couldn’t even stand in, inside a glass box where they couldn’t cry for people to help them.

Your eyes watered again as the two of you walked to the back and, after a moment fiddling with the keys, into the glass box. Peering in you could see Pappy curled up against the back of the cage looking deathly tired and clutching the right side of the cage where Sansy used to lay. It was pathetic and heartbreaking to watch. You didn’t know what to say so you just walked over and sat in front of the cage.

Pappy jerked awake as if you’d kicked it and curled further back. The moment he recognized you though he flung himself forward towards the front of the cage.

“NO!” He cried out, thin phalanges gripping the bars as translucent orange tears gathered at his sockets, “No! No No No! You should not be here! You can’t!”

He pressed himself closer on the bars and sobbed, voice weak and shaky. “He is Safe with you.. please.. Please tell me you did not do what I think you did.. human please..”

You stared at the bitty watching him absolutely coming apart in front of you. _Begging_ _you._

This bitty knew. He knew what had happened before and he knew what they were doing to Sansy here. That’s why he’d asked you to take him. You knew that before you left.. so how.. how could you have ended up back here?

You looked up for a moment at the employee, staring at him.

“Go away, please,” you told him, looking him dead in the eyes. He stared back, even more confused now about your behavior and was about to reply before you spoke again over riding anything he was going to say. “Get. Out.”

Now you weren’t very big, nor did you have a violent bone in your body but you had never seen someone high tail it away from you as quick as he did. Good.. he should be concerned about you. If you didn’t have so many priorities above him to take care of you would have tasked yourself to get him fired.

Instead you turned back to the bitty and opened the cage carefully so he didn’t fall out. You numbly pulled the big bitty into your lap and held him in your arms, his chin over your shoulder, confused and trying to figure out what was happening.

You just held him, rubbing your hand up and down his back, though you weren’t sure if it was more for him or for you.

The two of you stayed in silence while both of your breathing calmed. The Papyrus type melted into your hold, desperate for any sort of positive attention he could get. You noticed at this point how much the feeling of his bones differed from Cherry’s. Your bitty’s bones were smooth almost glossy, like it had a thin layer of lacquer over it. But Pappy.. his bones felt almost chalky to the touch. Slightly rough and just uncomfortable enough that you were glad he had on a shirt.

You remembered Sansy having the same feeling even after a bath.

“Hey… you lived with Sansy before this place right?”  If he lived with him before they came here. He’d know a lot about them. They were close, they had to be if Sansy wanted to come back so badly. You leaned back just enough to look at the bitty.

His tired eyes met yours, reluctant to lose your warmth and unwilling to remove his hold on your shirt.

“Yes.. we are brothers, we were adopted by another family before.. he has had many ‘mini families’ since then. But no one like you! You are a fantastic human who is very good for him! Y-you wouldn’t bring him back here, you are much too great to do that!” he insisted, gripping even tighter. His hold was shaky, desperate. He knew, he’d likely seen as much when you came in with that damn receipt in your hand. But he was hopeful, too hopeful. You were, in his eyes, the greatest hope for his brother.

“Would you say Sansy was dangerous?” you asked him softly reaching up and trying to remove a dark smudge from under his eye. It took a few moments before you realized it wasn’t a smudge. He just likely wasn’t getting any sleep, though could you blame him if his only lifeline had just been removed from his presence and he didn’t know what was happening? It made you a little sick to your stomach. Sansy would have been the same way if he hadn’t been so drugged up, you were almost certain of it.

He looked startled at first, then concerned. “No, he would never hurt anyone! My brother is a good skeleton, he may do some bad things but it is only because he thinks his reasons are good!” he explained quickly, looking incredibly nervous. His gaze shifted away and he squirmed. “I know he.. probably did something bad, okay? But he didn’t hurt anyone, did he? H-he was probably scared! Sometimes he wakes up and he’s scared and it’s really hard to calm him down.. but whatever he did he didn’t mean it and I promise he’s not going to do it again! So Please, human.. please don’t bring him back to this horrible place..”

Pappy curled down into your chest, shaking ever so slightly, scared for the future of his brother. You sighed quietly, bringing Pappy with you as you leaned against the display glass. You knew Sansy had done what he did to get you to bring him back here. He couldn’t handle being separated from Pappy. But Pappy needed him to find a home. He was desperate for Sansy to get out of this place. You sighed deeper.

“When you were with your last family… did he destroy things?”

Pappy leaned back and shook his head quickly, brow bones furrowed. “Never, he was lazy and quiet! He took care of me. He was good! He _is_ good!”

“He destroyed a lot of my stuff. He traumatized Cherry…” you mumbled quietly. Pappy looked shocked a moment and quickly shifted his gaze away. “..but he was also incredibly selective how he did it. It was careful.. calculated enough to look like more of a mess than it actually is. As if he placed a few things down with no intent on breaking them… I believe… he was just trying to make me angry, to make me bring him back here. And it worked..”

Pappy’s eyes teared up again pushing further away from you and holding himself. He looked so much smaller now with this betrayed look in his eyes.

“They’ll hurt him again..” He whimpered.

Yes… they would. You pulled the bigger bitty against your chest again and heaved out a sigh once more. “He just wants to be with you..” you mutter quietly running over numbers in your head with furrowed brows. This was stupid, incredibly stupid and you _knew_ it was stupid.

Still you stood with Pappy in your arms and and walked over to the counter. You pulled out your card and damn near slammed it down in front of the employee who sputtered slightly and checked you out.

Within minutes you were practically stomping back to the car. Irritated at yourself for all of this. Pappy was incredibly confused, looking up to the sky the moment you got out and still not being clear on what had just happened and how you walked out of the store with him.

You opened up the back seat of the car and scooted in, sitting next to Cherry and Sansy’s cage, turning to him and pointing an accusatory finger at him.

“Listen here right now. You will not break things to try and get your way ever again because it will NOT work. I didn’t do this because you pitched a fit, if you would have talked to me we would have worked something out but now I’m upset because people in that store are stupid not because I’m mad at you. But before we move forward you have to promise to be good, okay?”

You looked mad, you sounded mad. Cherry was watching you with wide, curious, eyes before his gaze shifted to the bigger bitty of the three, almost in awe at how big he was compared to everyone. He wasn’t sure what was happening and jumped when Sansy suddenly pushed himself against the edge of the cage with a bit of a thud.

He still had tears in his eyes. “pap!” the bitty called out, gripping the bars tightly in his hands, “what did she—you are—“ He lost his words completely, confused and trying to piece a few things together. Suddenly Pappy pulled from your arms and crawled over gripping his brother’s hands through the bars and pressing their foreheads together as close as they could.

It was a warm, tender, moment between the two, finally getting that contact from each other they’d been denied for so long. As happy as you wanted to be you simply leaned back and sighed, reaching over, plucking Cherry and pulling him into your lap. He seemed calm enough, if not in awe of the sudden addition to the car.

“Mama is that his Papyrus?” he questioned quietly, pulling at your shirt as he settled into your loose hold.

You blinked at the phrasing and tilted your head a bit, thinking. Well you supposed that was one way to look at it. You did hear it was best to adopt bitties in pairs..

“Yeah, I think so. They were in a home together before.” You said quietly, watching as their reunion seemed to come to an end. Pappy leaned back and despite Sansy reaching for him again he’d turned away.

“Human, may I open the cage?” he questioned hesitantly, voice quiet and unsure if you would allow him in or Sansy out.

You blinked and looked back towards them, nodding. “Yeah.. he uh.. walked in there on his own. I didn’t tell him to go in so… sure..?” You wanted to say the only reason you’d kept him in the cage was to keep Cherry safe.. but given how close you were to returning him…

You sunk into your seat a little, ashamed.

Pappy immediately fiddled with the cage and got it open. Sansy quickly leaned out and gripped his brother around the ribcage, phalanges digging into the gross thin fibers of his shirt. He was sobbing harder now while Pappy just stroked his skull and held close with quiet, ‘there there’s.

It was hard to tell what was going through either of their minds. Your’s on the other hand was buzzing with so many questions. Not only about the boys themselves, but their previous life, the future, and how to handle everything just at the moment. Cherry had melted into your idle touch, thumb running over his spine and it made you feel a little more comfortable.

“Pappy… I’m expecting you to keep him out of trouble, okay?” You began, causing all three skeletons to look up at you.

Pappy’s head tilted slightly and it took him a few moments to understand. “We’re all going home with you..?” he questioned. Suddenly Sans’s eyelights went wide as quarters, his gaze shifted to his brother and then back to you. The question lingered in the air and you hesitated, running your fingers through your hair.

“It’s.. not going to be perfect.. I don’t have a lot, and I’m not very good at like… cooking or anything really.. uhm. Money is going to be tight for a while so I can’t promise you all anything fancy like your own bed or new clothes.. And I have to go to classes a lot so you’ll be left alone sometimes,” you frowned as you said it all, really thinking about everything wrong with the situation. “But.. we have a home, and you won’t be in a cage, and you won’t be drugged up for no good reason.” You huffed a little at that and looked away.

Sansy sat up a little more, tears having been long since wiped off on Pappy’s shirt.

“you’re not mad at me..? i wrecked your house..—“ Sansy started but suddenly Pappy sat up straight and crossed his arms.

“You wrecked this nice human’s house after all I did to make sure you got adopted!” He huffed, and pointed a finger at him, “You will not do that again, brother, or you will be in big trouble.”

“ok,” he gave a half smile and you could practically see the warmth on his face from whether from nostalgia or utter love for the bitty in front of him. When Pappy turned to look at you, though, his eyes followed. You sighed and pursed your lips.

“I won’t be mad if you help pick up and promise to never do it again,” you murmured reaching over and running your hand over his skull. He flushed and looked down between him and his brother then looked away.

“i won’t..”

His gaze shifted up to his brother again whose eyes were shining with a light he hadn’t seen in a while. He remembered his talk with Cherry… this human was a good human. They came and got Pap for him..

Sansy took a deep breath, his own eyes shining slightly. He would do whatever it took to keep them there. If that meant taking care of that other bitty for her he would. Whatever kept them together, he was Determined to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaHHHH You all wanted Pappy! So I delivered! Here is hoping Sansy keeps his end of the bargain.   
> But with an extra bitty in the house, who knows what kind of troubles its going to bring!   
> Is Pappy as sweet as we think he is? Or is he just as bad as Sansy! Find out next time on lets play with your feelings, Bittybones style!


	12. Paving the Way

The ride home was incredibly quiet. Cherry couldn’t keep his eyes off the two in the back. He’d scooted over and was leaning right over the nook of your arm, peering into the back seat and watching how they curled and contorted together to get as close as they possibly could to each other.

He had this almost wistful look on his face, wondering if _he_ could get them to cuddle him like that. The smallest bitty wondered exactly what they were thinking. Were they thinking about each other? How they could wake up every morning with the other right there? Or perhaps how the other was going to manage in this new home? Maybe they were considering the home itself, how their human had everything set up. Sansy hadn’t really left the living room and kitchen area when he woke up, and while there wasn’t too much more to the house he still had plenty to see about how his, no how _their_ human lived! How they would all live from this day forward.

He cracked a small grin. Maybe they were considering the food. Sansy had some food before he went crazy, maybe he was looking forward to their Mama’s cooking? They’d probably been fed the same icky stuff that he had been fed so the bigger one was in for a super big surprise! Cherry giggled at that, earning your attention. You looked down briefly and smiled just a bit, making him smile even wider and wrap his tiny arms around your upper arm, squeezing as tight as he could.

It was a relaxing pressure, something that eased your pounding heart. You still weren’t sure you’d made the right decision, but as you watched Cherry, watched the boys with your now adjusted rear view mirror, you admitted you felt.. better than you did during the drive up here.

Still, that guilt crawled up your spine like the bile you felt rising in your throat from what you’d almost returned Sansy to. You didn’t think you could live that down, even if to everyone else it might have looked like a cruel trick. No, you knew in your own mind you’d nearly done something unforgivable and this was just to make up for it.

You wondered briefly why you hadn’t felt that guilt when leaving behind Pappy. Why you’d been so okay with just accepting Sansy instead of him? Your gaze shifted to the mirror, looking at the two. You wondered if Pappy held it against you… he seemed more upset about you returning with Sansy than the prospect of getting him. You weren’t sure he’d even processed fully the fact the was going home with you. Instead, he was just basking in the warmth that was his brother.

The trip home was almost cruelly quiet. You didn’t like the radio in general, but you almost felt like turning it on would break whatever comfortable form of silence they held. You stayed in your own head, they stayed with each other, and Cherry stayed surprisingly optimistic.

 

Once you pulled up to the apartments you shuffled Cherry around in your arms and got out of the car, walking around and opening the door for Sansy and Pappy. You held out a hand because despite how big the two were, Sansy at least looked like he needed a hand. (Then again, hadn’t he jumped off the kitchen counter just fine before? Ehh, bygones.) 

Pappy turned allowing Sansy to slip out of his lap, scoot along the car seat and hop out onto the pavement in a few solid motions. It was kind of surprising that he landed cleanly and took a few easy steps beside you, turning to watch his brother instead. You turned towards Pappy as well and motioned him to do the same thing with a smile. He grinned and shuffled over and reached for your hand, taking it. He slipped down and gripped tightly onto your hand, taking a few shaky steps and standing to the side while you closed your door.

Cherry perked up and pointed up a few flights of stairs. “We live up there!” He announced happily, “Now you guys do too, right Mama?”  You laughed, locking the car with a BEEP BEEP and motioning them to follow you.

“Yeah, we’re all living there together now—“ you paused hearing a quiet clatter of bones behind you.

“pap!” Sans shouted, immediately at his brother’s side. He’d only moved a step from where you left him and was on his hands and knees like he’d tripped.

You blinked and quickly walked back over, brows furrowed. “Hey, you okay?” you questioned quietly, offering him a hand.

“Y-yes, I am fine I just.. fell,” Pappy explained, seeming perplexed by his own position on the ground. He took your hand and held Sansy’s shoulder as well, needing the extra support to stand.

Both you and Sansy watched carefully as he took another step, his legs wobbled and he nearly topped again.

“bro?” Sansy asked, this time sounding nervous. White pinpricks darted back and forth between his brother’s face and his legs, concerned like he was piecing together something.

“I uhm.. am having some trouble..?” Pappy started and trailed off, looking just as confused as everyone else was.

You sat down immediately and put Cherry in your lap, gently coaxing Sansy a few inches away from his brother as you held the taller bitty upright by the ribcage. He was light, stable enough when you were holding him, but the moment you loosened your hold, forcing him to carry his weight on his own two legs, he started looking uncomfortable.

Fortunately he held his ground, looking at you nervously as if you were about to fuss at him for failing this test of sorts.

“Can you take a step towards me, Pappy?” you asked calmly, hands still to either side of him. His shoulders tensed up but he did as he was asked and took a step forward, just to have his legs buckle underneath him. You caught him immediately, but Sansy had also rushed forward to grab his brother so he wouldn’t hit the rough ground again.

Realization hit the three of you hard. Pappy couldn’t walk like this.

Flashes of the small cage he’d been crammed in flashed in your mind as you tried to picture him in any position that let him stretch his legs out. You couldn’t think of any. He couldn’t stand, he couldn’t put his legs flat in the cage. Hell, Sansy had barely been able to do it and he was half the height of Pappy.

Were he any other creature you would have guessed muscle deterioration, but this was a skeleton. A _bitty_. They didn’t have muscle; they didn’t even have actual blood as far as you were aware! So why?

You were broken out of your thoughts as Sansy called his brother’s name again, hands on his shoulder and eye sparking blue and yellow in panic.

Pappy had sunk to the ground, shaking and staring at his own legs like they had betrayed him.

“I can’t—“ he admitted frightfully as he looked up at the stairs like they were some huge monster he had to conquer alone. His sockets were wide and stressed, even as he gripped onto his brother’s hand. “H-how can I..?”

You followed his gaze up the stairs and tried to imagine what it must look like in his eyes. A huge obstacle in the way of him and a home. Your gaze shifted back and you felt something in your squeeze in your chest. He was still just a child.. a child who had been neglected and denied too many basic needs. One who thought to rely on you just to get Sansy home, but nothing for himself.

Perhaps he didn’t even know if he could rely on you for himself, had he asked before? Asked for anything for his own needs? He was practically in tears over something so… small.

You shook your head and shifted Cherry, making sure he got a good grip on your hair as you set him on your shoulder and leaned down to pick Pappy up.

“Hey.. don’t hesitate to ask me for help okay? I’m right here.. that goes for you too, Sansy,” you say shuffling a bit as you stand. He’s still just as light as before when you settle him on your hip and smile, “you’ve been off of them for a while, your legs I mean, we just need to get you used to it again. It’s okay. Cherry doesn’t walk either.”

Pappy looked up in confusion at the smallest bitty but Cherry just smiled bashfully and tried to hide behind your hair.

“I got hurt at that place… they were gunna dust me because I couldn’t be fixed. But Mama came and took me away, and now I’m going to get better!” He insisted brightly, turning and nuzzling against your cheek. You laughed quietly and nuzzled him back, leaning over and nuzzling Pappy too.

“We’re going to make you all better too Pappy, so don’t worry,” you explained to him as he nodded slowly and nuzzled his forehead against your face. He seemed to perk up at that and looked down towards his brother who had slumped into his poorly made shirt, eye lights somewhat dark and hollow like he was thinking about something else. You quirked and brow and leaned down, grabbing him and hoisting him up onto your other hip and yelling eagerly.

“And now we’re a big happy family! Raaawr!” You roared, trying to cheer them up. Pappy and Cherry laughed while Sansy startled and gripped tightly onto your shirt, eyes wide as he looked up at you.

For a moment, he considered everything you’d said. It was just a moment, but as you started carrying them up the stairs one by one and fished out your keys, he got a good look at you.

You appeared optimistic, hopeful, and he couldn’t find a single sign of regret on your face. He could tell you wanted to help them, you wanted all of you to be some mishmash of a family. And when you smiled at him as you pushed open the door, he could tell you weren’t mad. This wasn’t a mistake to you, they weren’t a mistake. He felt something well up in his chest, something warm and fuzzy, like his magic was overflowing but he didn’t want it to stop. He looked over Cherry, over his brother, they were both smiling too. He looked back to you and with wide eyes, and he smiled back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> =)


	13. A Ways To Go

Yes, optimistic and hopeful. That is what you would all continue to be…

At least until you walk through the front door and remember the mess that Sansy had left you all to clean up.

Your shoulders sank, slightly displacing Cherry who gave a whine as he wobbled to get his stability. Pappy tensed up looking around at all the collateral damage from his brother. Your gaze shifted to Sansy who held a tense grin, eyelights out, and quickly spoke up.

“uhh.. I can.. fix that?” He asked, unsure.

“You can fix all my plates?” you questioned, quirking a brow.

“uh.. no, but I can fix the furniture—“

“BROTHER, YOU DID ALL THIS??” Pappy yelled, squirming in your hold, upset.

“i mean.. i didn’t not do it,” he tried forcing a smile and shifting in his spot, which just made his brother squint. “i’ll put things back.”

You laughed quietly and closed the door, “I’m not sure most of this can be ‘put back’.” You took a deep breath looking at the larger objects turned upside down in the room, “how am I going to move the TV and couch back without breaking them? Hell, how did _you_ manage to do it??”

Sansy just gave this best grin and squirmed out of your hands, walking over. You readjusted Pappy in your arms and paused for a moment suddenly hearing the crunching of glass on bare feet. Immediately you jerked forward and picked Sansy up with your one arm. “Woah woah woah, you’re going to hurt yourself! There are broken plates everywhere!”

Cherry practically was tangling himself up in your hair, startled while Pappy had to grab onto you for support. Sansy on the other hand started slipping down in your hold, which turned into looking like you were strangling his face with your arm. You decidedly kept your shoes on as you quickly tiptoed around, awkwardly trying to avoid shards so you didn’t shatter them into smaller pieces. Sansy made a muffled sound and you hoisted him up, practically on top of Pappy as you held them closely together. That didn’t seem to be much better for them.

“uh, human, not that i don’t appreciate getting to curl up to my bro or anything,” he grunted, as Pappy pushed him in the face a bit, trying to resituate their positions. They were kind of being held like a bundle of unfolded laundry, “but i promise, i can’t get cut like that. bone, remember? not skin.”

You paused looking down as he lifted a bare foot, wiggling his toe bones. A few glass shards fell out but he remained unharmed. Giving a nervous laugh you knelt down away from some of the bigger sections of debris and sat both of the bigger boys down. Sansy stood and Pappy slowly lowered himself to the floor, giving a huff as he looked at all the damage his brother had caused.

“Brother I Want You To Fix This This Instant,” he stated firmly, though it seemed more like a child pouting as he crossed his arms and stayed on the floor.

“okay bro,” Sansy nodded easily enough, his gaze shifted to the TV and he walked over.

“Oh no no no, you don’t have to, you’re going to hurt yourself,” you interrupted quickly, going to stop him from trying to pick it up. But the sound of plate pieces piling on top of eachother one by one distracted you. “Pappy! Pappy no, don’t touch that, you’re going to get hurt!” You went back over and plucked the pieces from his hand and tried shooing him back. He whined and tried to take it back, but shied away.

“hey human,” Sansy spoke up, holding a shard in his hand as he grabbed your attention.

“Sansy!” You yelped, rushing back to his side just to watch him literally crush the piece into about eight more pieces. The sound you made was a garbled panicked, ‘no no no!’ as you reached over to snatch it away. He gave this relaxed grin and opened his hand easily enough allowing you to take the pieces and look over his wounds. Or at least, what you thought should have been wounds, small glass shards fell from his hand as he wiggled his phalanges and revealed a lack of anything even resembling a scratch.

Clearly the whole ‘it can’t hurt us’ thing hadn’t sunk in, but it was kind of heartwarming to Sansy how much you cared for him and his brother’s wellbeing already.

You looked dumbfounded at his hand and leaned back, realization slowly sinking in.

“Oh,” you said intelligently.

“yeah,” he grinned, brushing his hands together and turning back to his task.

Cherry finally managed to remove himself from your hair and whined, “Mama, I want my cradle.” He’d been tossed around quite a bit as you fussed over the other two bitties and it seemed he’d had enough.

You blinked looking back to your smallest bitty.

“Oh, yeah okay.” You nodded and got up, going to your room to get it.

Cradle. That was he called the sling thing you made so he could stay close and you could still move around. It really didn’t look like a cradle, but you supposed it kind of took the place of you cradling him in your arms so it was easy enough to accept.

Once you were in your room you looked about on the messy bed and decided it wasn’t there. Your gaze shifted over to the two pallets you’d made for Cherry and Sansy and wondered how you were going to fit Pappy into this arrangement. It was a single bed and not much room even with Cherry being so small. Adding Sansy had been easy enough, but Pappy too?

You took a deep breath and shifted the little pallet for Sansy out, making it less soft and more strewn out. That way it looked like it could at least accommodate two bitties. Cherry’s got moved up against the wall next to everyone’s head. As long as he could cuddle against you it would be okay, and now that you thought about it, it might be safer there too. No risk of rolling over and smothering the tiny bitty.

Cherry was watching you mentally rearrange things, eyes shifting to the bed as you finally decided on something and moved a few things. He shrugged, content enough for now as you shifted his mini box-bed then half-heartedly made an attempt at making the bed while still holding him on your shoulder. He nuzzled into your hand happily as you both went over to the dresser and found his sling.

You smiled as you adorned your cloth and oh so gently placed him inside. You shifted it about so he had plenty of room to sit up and move around if he wanted to without getting lost in the material. You took a few moments and just gave your smaller bitty some attention before relaxing and thinking things over.

You’d kind of made this decision split second. You certainly didn’t want to think about how close you were to returning Sansy, but you also needed to address the fact that you did all of this without really talking to Cherry. Your gaze shifted down. He seemed content enough.. but still.

“So.. how did your talk with Sansy go when you were both in the car?” you questioned softly, moving back to the bed and sitting down.

He peeked out from the material that had curled over him and looked up at you curiously.

“I.. I think it went okay.. I, uh.. I really told h-him who’s boss!” Cherry stated firmly, trying to be assertive, “A-and that he can’t do that anymore and, uh… oh, that he should feel bad because that was very mean!”

Well.. that had _generally_ been what he said, but you didn’t need to know the details. He blushed a little and looked away, gripping the material and wriggling about in his nervousness.

“Oh, I see,” you hummed as you reached down and lightly petted his skull. He crooned at the attention and seemed to gain his confidence back.

“He felt really bad. He even cried a little.. But I don’t think anyone could have been prepared when you brought back—uh..” He paused and squinted a bit. “What’s his name again?”

“Pappy,” you said helpfully. He nodded at that.

“Right, a Pappy. When you brought Pappy there—He’s so BIG! I didn’t know bitties could get that big! I hope I never get that big though, I want to stay small so I can be held and still ride on your shoulder!” He grinned happily and nodded several times before giving you this warm smile that made you melt. You smiled and leaned down, kissing him lightly.

“So you don’t mind I brought him into our family? Sansy or Pappy?” You asked softly as you leaned back.

He shook his head again seeming very adamant about that. “Sansy didn’t want to do what he did! I think he just didn’t know how to go about it! He _feels_ very different now. I uhm.. I’m gunna give him another chance to do good, or I’m going to give him another talking to!” Cherry crossed his arms and nodded to himself.

“Pappy seems good,” he continued. “If Sansy wanted to get back to Pappy so bad he _has_ to be good, right? A-and.. if that place did what they were gunna do to me to him then.. Then we did something good right? They could have… could have..” He trailed off, expression falling as he looked away.

Your heart sank. You wondered if they knew if something was wrong with him and didn’t do anything, or if they hadn’t known at all yet. If they had found out, would they have taken him to the back to be put down, like they had nearly done with Cherry? You suddenly couldn’t shake the image of what would have happened if when you chose Sansy, that they had decided to go ahead with that. You would have come back and returned Sansy to that empty cage beside him. You would have effectively chosen to kill Pappy in order to take Sansy. The thought stuck in the back of your throat and burned like acid.

It was awful to consider and you quickly tried to shake it from your mind as you felt tiny skeletal hands on your finger. You looked to him and forced a smile. He was worried and with good reason, he was likely starting to understand that far away look on your face, the way your breathing hitched just slightly when you allowed nasty thoughts to pile up like that.

You took a deep breath and pulled him up, nuzzling him as he curled worriedly against your cheek.

“You know it’s going to be a little harder around here, right? I mean.. I haven’t been doing great by any means, but this may get a bit.. tough, until I can figure something out. Promise me you’ll be my little helper still?” You smiled down at him as you pulled back.

Bright red light shined back at you, a little brighter than moments before.

“Of course I-I’m going to be the best helper!” He reached for your face again and you happily obliged, leaning back down and nuzzling him some more.

Cherry was such a good boy and you were glad he was on board with all of this. You couldn’t imagine what you would have done if he’d been upset. But Cherry wouldn’t be alone and maybe you wouldn’t have to worry so much now that you were away. Next all you’d have to do is figure out how Sansy and Pappy felt about all of this.

Speaking of which..

“We should probably go back out,” you laughed nervously. “Wouldn’t want to come back to even more mess now would we?”

Cherry looked up at you and gave an almost mischievous little giggle. He grinned and nodded up at you. “Nope!”

 

When you went back out to the living room you found that all of the furniture was back where it belonged. All the salvageable dishware was placed in a nice stack on the island and most of the glass shards were in two or three piles, while Pappy was picking up the last few and placing them in the final pile.

Sansy on the other hand had ended up on the now right side up couch and looked exhausted. If it weren’t for the fact that there were those piles around and your cabinets appeared particularly barren, you might have thought none of it had happened in the first place.

“How in the world did you pick everything back up??” You gawked at the state of the living room, noting that Pappy had done an impeccable job collecting all the pieces. You felt kind of bad for that though, imaging him crawling around, or scooting like Cherry often did. Still as he looked up he seemed rather proud of himself.

Sansy panted from his spot on the couch, raising a hand as if to answer a question and letting it flop again, too tired.

“Ma-hah..-hagic..” He explained, as you went over and sat beside him. You ran your hand over his skull and cringed a bit at how sticky and _wet_ it was. You grabbed for a forgotten napkin on the table and dabbed at his skull.

“You really didn’t have to, I would have gotten it.. You too, Pappy. I could have picked it up, I hate to make you clean up when you just get home..”

Pappy turned to you and quickly shook his head.

“It Was My Brother’s Mess, So It Was Mine Too! Besides This Is Our Home… Right?” He furrowed his brow bone at that and looked down rubbing at his arm nervously, as if ashamed to make that assumption.

You furrowed your own brow concerned he was questioning it and just nodded.

“Right… it’s home to all of us..” You got up and walked over, picking up Pappy and bringing him back over to the couch, where you shifted Sansy slightly onto your lap. Almost in an instant he’d fallen asleep against your leg and you could help but laugh. Pappy crossed his arms with a mutter about, ‘That Lazybones’ but soon settled into the crook of your arm as you both relaxed. Even Cherry, who was peeking out of his cradle seemed to watch the three of you with a sleepy, but content, look on his face. All four of you were out like a light, enjoying a well deserved nap.

 

The rest of the day flew by and after the rest of the living room and kitchen was packed up it was time for food. Surprisingly, you managed to scrounge together enough for a decent meal which was accepted as if it had been the most glorious bounty the brothers had ever seen in their lives.

They stuffed their faces as if food would be taken away from them the moment you made a move for your own food. Sansy was protective of his meal, even giving a light growl when you took his glass to fill it up with more milk.

Pappy on the other hand just flinched, looking at you like you were going to do something cruel when you scooted his plate closer to you to add another portion of noodles. As it turned out, they’d both been surviving on the same food that Cherry was forced to eat at the shop, given nothing but a few extra calcium tablets to keep them ‘healthy’.

No wonder by the time you got them in the bath Sansy’s bones still weren’t coming clean. Fortunately, both boys seemed particularly happy about getting a bath. Pappy especially seemed excited, asking you twenty questions before they even got their clothes off.

Sansy was helping his brother out of his nasty old t-shirt and seemed just as intrigued at your answers. Not that you could blame him. He was so out of it last time you gave him a bath. You turned the spout on and watched as Pappy leaned as far as he could to watch.

“Is The Water Going To Be Warm?” Pappy started.

“Nice and hot, even,” you answered quirking a brow back at him feeling the water heat up on your hand. He squeaked turning to Sansy and repeating they were getting hot water. Sansy just nodded slowly, though the excitement didn’t fade from his eyes.

“Do We Get To Soak In It?” He asked, hands to his mandible as if he were in awe at the prospect.

“Sure, until the water cools off if you want.” Ahh the water felt nice now, you quickly plugged it up and let it start filling itself.

“So Long!” Pappy giggled grabbing Sansy’s hands and shaking him lightly.

“Are We Going To Use A Cloth—OH DO WE GET A FLUFFY CLEAN TOWEL AFTER?!”

You swear his eyes had hearts in them and it was the cutest thing. Sansy tried to hush him but he just seemed more excited. You got up, digging under the sink for some clean towels for them.

“BUT BROTHER, WE COULD BE WRAPPED IN CLEAN WARM TOWELS THAT DO NOT SMELL LIKE WET FOUR-LEGGED FUR BEASTS. I NO LONGER WANT TO SMELL LIKE WET CANINE—“

“bro, shh..!” He hushed again quickly, putting his hands on his brother’s shoulder. Pappy jumped and covered his mouth. He blinked and his eyes seemed hollow again as both bitties looked to you nervously.

It took you a moment to realize what happened when they both fell quiet, hands on each other looking as if they feared you. You furrowed your brows and pulled out clean white towels and held them out to the boys, but they refused to touch it.

You set the towels on top of the closed toilet lid and closed the cabinets so you had room to sit down. “It’s okay, hey.. it’s fine.”

You reached over to touch Pappy, but with a flash there were suddenly blue bones floating in front of them, Sansy having stepped in front of his brother, arms out to either side. Cherry flinched at the motion and held on tighter to you.

“don’t touch him,” he spoke, voice wavering a bit.

Your eyes shifted to the bones and you were honestly more curious about those than anything else. Instead you moved to touch one of the bones, allowing curiosity to get the better of you, but Cherry yanked your shirt and cried out “Don’t!”.

You paused at the tug and reached down to hold Cherry to your chest instead.

Pappy still had his hands over his mouth though his gaze shifted to Sansy.

The smaller bitty’s magic soon fizzled out and he panted quietly.

It was a heavy silence between the four of you, no one moving except for Cherry who was gripping at your clothes, pinned there and too nervous to turn back.

You jumped slightly hearing a gurgle as water reached the upper drain of the tub and turned that way.

“I’m going to move to turn off the water now, okay?” you offered, giving them a moment to digest your words before getting up and turning the knob until the water shut off.

As the last few droplets dripped into the tub and the water settled you heard the two behind you move.

“I’m Sorry..” Pappy said as softly as his voice could manage. He moved to holding Sansy now who just looked tired.

“For what?” you asked, furrowing your brows as you sat on the edge of the tub and looking over the two near naked skeletons.

“For Being So… Loud… Obnoxious… Annoying… Irritable…” He seemed to sink with each word and Sansy was quick to turn and reassure him.

“bro you ain’t any of those things.. come on now..” He wrapped his arms around him for a moment before feeling tears drip down his skull.

“But I..” he whimpered suddenly feeling hands on his face and sniffling as his brother tried to wipe away tears.

With Sansy facing away from you you took the moment to shift Cherry back onto your shoulder so you didn’t crush him as you moved over and wrapped your arms around the two skeletons holding them tightly to your chest. Sansy bristled and Pappy looked nervous for a second.

“I’m not mad at you, you got excited so you got a little loud. Don’t worry so much okay? The walls aren’t too thin so as long as you aren’t like.. screaming to the other side of the apartment it should be okay, so cut yourself some slack!”

You gave them both little kisses against their skulls and smiled brightly. “Come on you wanted a hot bath right! So lets get you guys in before it cools down! You were excited for this! Get excited, where did my happy little skeletons go?”

You leaned down and blew a raspberry against Sansy which sounded more just like you were blowing air at him but he gave a short deep little laugh anyway and pushed your face away. Pappy seemed to relax at that too, smiling a bit and looking up to you almost expectantly.

You laughed and leaned over blowing a raspberry against his skull too, which he squeaked, laughing and tried to push away from.

“We’ve Been Captured Brother! Caught! Apprehended! Seized By The Human! Quick To The Safety Of The Water!” Pappy announced, sputtering a bit when Sansy disappeared and reappeared above the tub, dropping in with a SPLASH! Pappy gawked throwing his hands in the air. “THAT’S CHEATING!”

You couldn’t help but laugh, somewhat amazed by the show of magic but kept your hold on Pappy loose.

“I’ve ensnared you, there is no escaping from me!” You announced laughing as Pappy struggled in your arms and quickly seemed to exhaust himself.

“THIS IS TREASON! I WILL NOT FORGET THIS BROTHER, I WILL NEVER FORGET!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good times? Bad times? Wonder why Pappy is so nervous..  
> Who cares! Baths are fun!


	14. Settling In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys wanted fluff right?  
> -throws fluff at you all-

During the brothers’ bath you brought Cherry a little bowl, undressed him, and let him soak with his injured leg hanging over the edge of the plate. You had to constantly refill the bowl with fresh water to keep it warm but Cherry was more than happy to curl up to you each time. Papy also enjoyed each time because you’d turn the faucet on and he’d get to curl up to the spout and enjoy even more clean warm water. Sansy on the other hand didn’t mind letting his bro keep towards to faucet and was content sticking his feet over in his brothers lap when the hot water was turned on, just stretching out and floating a bit.

You were hopeful that allowing Papy to stretch out in the heat of the bath would help those legs of his start working better again. Not that you expected a miracle, but you only really had experience with sore legs, and these bitties didn’t exactly have muscle. The closest other thing had been with Cherry and his situation was a bit different. Not that he’d been improving on the walking front either, but it was all you had to compare.

Either way, all three seemed to be immensely enjoying the bath and it took several more refills for Cherry and a couple more for the brother’s before you scrubbed them down completely and plucked them one by one from the tub. First was Cherry, who got bundled up in a cocoon of a wash towel and sat on the sink. You had to be really careful, not wanting to get his makeshift splint wet. You didn’t want to risk shifting it and having to reset the bone if you had to change it. After a quick pat dry you turned the towel so the dry side was against him and bundled him again. He practically purred, watching you with sleepy, half lidded, eyes as you moved to the next bitty.

Papy was a great deal larger, and practically vibrated with excitement as he reached up to have you pull him out. You gripped under his arms, feeling small hands hold on as tightly has he could to not slip. Letting him drip dry for a second, you noticed how his legs stayed crooked just ever so slightly and wondered if that was his natural position or because it hurt to straighten them out.  Still, you sat him on the toilet lid and wrapped the large fluffy towel around him, lightly patting at his skull with the edges. He crooned under the attention and curled up even tighter in the towel, burrowing his face in its fluff and inhaling loudly.

“It Smells So Clean!” He squeaked happily, a light orange dusting his cheeks as he nuzzled into the material. Oh how he loved the smell of freshly laundered anything. He smelled like lavender and he swore the towel had a hint of it too. He hoped he could help with the laundry. That would be fun. Maybe if it didn’t open from the top he could reach it, his human would be so happy. Everything would smell clean and nice, that would make anyone happy wouldn’t it? He smiled warmly up at you, watching as you moved to pluck out his brother who was lazily floating in the tub. He seemed happy and that just made it all the better.

You laughed at Papy’s comment, pulling the plug and letting the water drain.

“I sure hope so, I did laundry... when was it Cherry?” You questioned back towards the smaller bitty.

“Three days ago. Friday, you w-wanted to try and see if softener would do anything for my clothes,” he hummed, taking the moment to pat a few spots on his neck dry, even though he knew in a few minutes you’d come and do it for him instead. Instead he grinned and continued as he buried down in the soft hand towel, imagining it was his clothes and giggling, “And it worked too!”

He was so pleased at that, watching you pick up Sansy from laying in the now drained tub and bundling him in the fluffy towel. The tiny bitty could tell he wasn’t the only one that was melting over the soft clean fabrics. Even Sansy was melting into your lap as you sat down on the edge of the tub, rubbing the little skeleton down.

You hummed listening to the deep little laughs coming from the skeleton you were holding. You’d need to make Papy something to wear. Actually, come to think of it.. Sansy and Papy were big enough that you might be able to buy them clothes in the children’s section. Clothes that actually fit them. It would certainly be better than anything you could make and to hell with the idea of putting them back in the rags you adopted them in.

Your gaze shifted to Papy. That meant the tall skeleton would need new clothes before bed time. Poor thing would have to deal with basically the same T pattern you stuck Sansy and Cherry in to sleep in. You honestly felt pretty bad about that. Still, you had three clean and happy skeletons.

 

After the bath you went ahead and dressed Cherry and Sansy in their sleep outfits and took the bundle that was Papy to the bedroom. Sansy took initiative and plucked Cherry, following you both with the smaller bitty in his arms almost like a child with a doll. It didn’t _look_ comfortable, but Cherry didn’t utter a word of complaint.

In the bedroom, you plopped Papy on the bed and started going through your clothes to see if you could make something decent for the newest member of your family.

“Hmm, how about..” you started, yanking an orange shirt with smiling pumpkins from your closet, along with one of your favored black shirts with a skull and crossbones pattern. You hesitated offering the black one for a moment before swallowing your pride and holding them both up to Papy and smiling. “Which of these do you think you’d like best, Papy?”

His eyes lit up immediately, honing in on the black one with skeleton faces on it. He bounced in his towel looking at you excitedly.

“Do I Really Get To Pick??” He asked eagerly, waiting for your nod before squeaking happily and pointing towards the black one. “That One?? Please Human! I Like That One!” He exclaimed happily, not even caring if it was too big on him. He reached out for it, determined to try it on right away.

You laughed at that and shrugged handing it over and letting him try the shirt on first. Maybe you could actually try measuring it properly instead of doing guesswork like you had for Sansy and Cherry. You looked towards them and their pathetic nightgowns, giving them a look of pity. Well Cherry wore his well at least. He really did look like a little doll, especially in Sansy’s hands. Sansy looked more like… well..

You paused, really taking in that lazy and content expression, watching him as he watched his brother fiddle his way through the oversized shirt and _beam_ back at him. They both gave a little thumbs up and you laughed. Maybe the monstrosity of a sleep dress you made for him was more fitting than you thought. It was just a solid color, which didn’t match Cherry’s cherry pattern or his brother’s skull pattern at all, but somehow the plain blue matched him quite well.

“Human, How Do I Look!” Papy asked happily, holding his arms out so the shirt didn’t slide completely off his shoulders.

You turned back to Papy and scooped him off the bed, twirling him in a circle and grinned. “You’re adorable!” you told him, and his face lit up even more with this precious orange dusting his cheeks.

“But…” You started. His expression fell slightly, but you leaned forward and nuzzled your nose against his nasal bone, “I bet we can make it even better for my great and wonderful Papy.”

He gasped and immediately wrapped his arms and legs around you, clinging tightly to you. You laughed, patting his back looking back to his brother who’s eyelights had blown up to twice their size.

“yeah bro, i bet she can make it even better for you. like i say, only the best for you,” Sansy said proudly, following behind you as you made your way back to the kitchen where you sat him down and started working on pinning and soon tailoring the shirt to fit him better.

 

This time you were taking special care to try and make it lay right. Third time’s the charm as they say, right? Once you had finished cutting and hand sewing it you flipped the sleep dress right side out and hummed looking over your handiwork. You nodded, pleased with yourself and stood, making your way back to the living room where you had the bitties watching Totoro.

Papy was utterly enthralled with the movie, staring wide eyed at the screen while buried in a new towel. (He’d grabbed the other one, but you didn’t want your poor skellie sitting in a wet towel.) He had Cherry curled up in the crook of his arm, sleepily watching the movie with the most content expression on his face. It hadn’t been the first time he saw this movie, but it was one of the few he’d gotten really attached to. Though, you guessed this was likely because you mentioned it was your favorite as a child growing up.

Sansy on the other hand had conked out again within the first ten minutes of the movie. You knew he’d been asleep because he had startled when the girls were screaming during the upstairs scene. Fortunately, he seemed to fall back asleep easily enough, curled up on his brother’s lap, face half buried in the towel.

You couldn’t help pulling out your phone and snapping a picture of them. It was something you’d started with Cherry when you got him. Funny, you hadn’t had a chance to take a picture of Sansy.. but somehow it seemed better with the three of them.

You stepped all the way into the living room and held out Papy’s new and improved, hopefully fitted sleep dress.

Papy gasped, eyes finding you you right away.

“Is It Done?? Is It Ready?? Is That Really Mine??” He asked eagerly, wriggling around enough that Sansy slowly woke up. He sleepily looked up at his bro, made quick eye contact with Cherry, and then sought you out.

His face was soon covered with a towel as you and Papy traded what you were holding. You held Cherry carefully in your arms and both watched as the taller bitty threw on the sleep shirt.

“Aww, look how precious you are, Papy!” You cooed, helping straighten out the edges of the shirt. He crooned under the praise as you reached over, cupping his cheekbones and nuzzling his nasal bone. “Does it feel comfortable, can you move well enough in it? The material should be stretchy so it should have a bit of give.”

Papy grinned, nuzzling right back before you leaned away. He started moving around his arms, curling down and generally testing the garment, nodding to himself. After feeling satisfied he  beamed up at you.

“This Is Perfect! Truly! I Do Not Know How To Thank You Enough!” He declared excitedly hugging himself and gripping happily at the fabric, snuggling into the material around him and bouncing around with boundless energy from out of no where.

“It isn’t that much, just something comfortable to sleep in, sweetie.” You blushed at the sincerity of his gratitude though, scratching your cheek with an embarrassed smile. Cherry giggled, swaying in your arms and happy that everyone was in a good mood.

Sansy finally pulled the towel off his face and sat up, taking a good look at his brother.

“wow pap, that really looks good on you,” he offered warmly, watching the taller bitty bloom under the praise.

“Yes! It Is Absolutely Perfect And Befitting Of The Great Papy! Nyeh-heh-heh!” He laughed grinning from cheek bone to cheekbone.

You reached down, bundling your bitties in a tight hug and turned them all, pulling them into your lap as you sat down.   
“I’m glad you like it, Papy, and I’ll make sure that you all have more clothes in the future okay?”

Until you could get them some real clothes, maybe you could look into getting a little better at sewing. But for now, everyone seemed content to curl up in clean clothes and finish watching the end of the movie.  
  
  
“Alright, is everyone comfy?” you asked as you settled everyone in the bedroom. It was an awfully small bed, but you didn’t want to have adopted Sansy and Pappy just to make them sleep on the couch. Fortunately, as it turns out, two small skeletons didn’t take up much room on the bed.

You ended up making a little pallet next to you for the boys. Extra blankets to make for more cushioning and their own blankets in case someone turned out to be a blanket hog. Cherry on the other hand took up an extra spot on your pillow, above the brothers, and curled up as close to you as he could. You’d attempted to make him a small pillow with a rolled up face cloth, but he mostly just sank into your pillow enough that it seemed to work well enough on its own.

He curled up with his hand towel blanket and nuzzled against your forehead, nodding in answer to your question.

“pap, you good?” Sansy asked, reaching up and readjusting the blankets for him. Papy nodded and scooted back towards you, dragging his brother closer by his ribcage. You leaned up to press a kiss against Cherry’s skull and wrapped your arm around the boys in front of you, hugging them tight so Papy ended up sandwiched between you.

“Yes, I Am Quite Comfortable Now, Thank You Human,” Papy practically purred, happily snuggling into the warmth from your body and wrapping his arms around his brother.

Sansy doubled the effort, wrapping his arms back around Papy and holding him tightly, pressing his face against the other’s collarbone.

It was nice, quiet and cozy as you reached over and turned off the light, though it wasn’t too dark even then. You kept your curtains open so Cherry could see the room. He got nervous the first couple of nights not remembering where he was, but he’d settled down pretty quickly. You hoped Sansy and Papy wouldn’t have the same struggle.

In the quiet you readjusted everyone’s blankets once more and settled into the covers again. You could feel Cherry’s small hands gripping at your hair, wanting to keep close to you. He was such a sweet little thing and you couldn’t help but smile, tilting your head just a bit to give him more room. He cooed quietly in response, already drifting off like he had been for the last bit of the movie.

Meanwhile you could tell, Sansy and Papy were still wide awake. You rubbed along Sansy’s spine, seeing his eye lights which had been so focused on his brother suddenly dart up to you.

“Are you comfortable?” you asked him specifically this time.

He looked confused for a moment, eye lights widening and then shrinking again.

“yeah, i’m good,” he said calmly, grip tightening on Papy. Somehow you doubted that though, and looked down to Papy who hadn’t closed his eyes either. Perhaps he felt your gaze on him because he slowly rolled onto his back to look at you.

He opened his teeth to speak to you but paused, teeth audibly clicking shut again. He furrowed his brow bones and... tried to think about how to phrase what was on his mind. The taller bitty took a deep breath and sighed.

“This Is…. The First Time My Brother And I Have Gotten To Share A Bed… Share A Space That Wasn’t Separated By Bars In.. So Long..” he took a sharp breath this time and you could see little translucent orange tears pooling at the edges of his sockets. “I Do Not Want To Consider.. A Future Where We Are Separated Again..”

Sansy’s eye lights had gone out, clearly thinking of something very similar. You could hear his bones rattling, trying hard to keep his emotions in check.

“i’d never let us go back there,” he started, but Papy shook his head, sitting up and physically reaching to pull his legs to his chest, hugging them tightly. Sansy sat up with him, wrapping his arms around his torso and holding on tightly.

“You Can Not Promise That,” Papy said quietly, knowing how his brother completely deflated behind him. He was right, Sansy couldn’t promise it. But he’d sooner run away, just the two of them than risk that fate again. He refused to be separated from his brother, no human could come between them again. He would NEVER let them.

“But I can,” you replied quietly, slowly sitting up so Cherry wouldn’t roll off the pillow. “I can promise you’ll never go back there—actually wait.”

You threw off the covers and crawled over the boys, looking around at the clothes on the floor and pulling up the pants you’d worn to the store. Quickly fishing the receipts from your pocket you went over to them to sit at the edge of the bed. Sansy immediately seemed uncomfortable by the presence of the slips of paper.

“Alright, can you two read?” You asked, watching them curiously. Papy immediately pointed to his brother.

“He Can! I Can Read A Few Words Though!” Papy said proudly. Sansy gave an embarrassed smile to his brother and shrugged.

“he’s just bein’ modest,” he insisted but leaned forward to look at them none the less.

“Well… look.. purchased Sansy, Classic Sans-Type Bitty… and return policy here..” you handed it to Sansy, and then pointed to the same words on Papy’s page, “and purchased Papy, Classic Papyrus-Type Bitty.. same deal here.”

You handed that one to Papy and put a hand on both of their shoulders. “Without those papers, I can’t return you to the pet store, okay? You can do whatever you want with them. Keep them, hide them, do whatever you want. If you ever want to go back you can just—“  
  
RIIIP!

You paused, watching as Papy immediately started shredding the paper in his hands into the smallest little pieces he could until the paper got too thick to rip.

“I Do Not Want To Go Back There, I Want To Stay Here, With My Brother, My New Friend, And My New Human!” and with that he threw all the little shreds on the floor with a huff.

You and Sansy were quiet for a moment looking at the little papers float down to the floor and settle.

“Or that,” you said slowly with a bit of a shrug, “that works too.”

“I’ll Pick It Up Later,” Papy said quietly, orange dusting his cheeks as he looked away and instead to Sansy’s receipt, then back up to him. Sansy still appeared stunned at Papy’s destructive response, but jolted when he was elbowed in the ribcage.

“huh?? oh right, heh,” he looked over the receipt again, quickly rereading every single word on the page, closing his eyes as if trying to keep the information in his skull, and slowly shredded it as well, handing the papers to his brother again so he could throw them onto the floor.

He grinned a bit feeling a bit cathartic from the distraction, and relaxing as the shreds floated to the floor. He fidgeted with a couple of pieces of both of the papers, rolling them back and forth between his fingers into pieces so small that even if you tried to find all the pieces and put them back together (not that you could because both receipts were so mixed up now) that you’d never find the last couple of pieces and thus never be able to return them.

“Listen.. I’d never take you back to a place like that, I mean not that I want to take you back to anywhere really, but, I mean, ugh,” you shook your head and tried to figure out how to rephrase it in order to sound better. “I know.. a little bit about what you went through.. I know at least what they put Cherry through and I would NEVER put you in that type of situation again, okay? Look.. I _chose_ both of you. I want you both to be happy and healthy, and if for some reason you choose not to be with us anymore then we’ll find something, okay? Someone else who you like better, or some place that you like better. But I’m never just going to, toss you out somewhere because I’m not happy. If you want to go, that will be your choice, okay? Until then this is just as much your home as it is mine.”

With that done you wrapped your arms around the two skeletons and pulled them to lay back down, not missing the way blown out eye lights watched your every move, trying to determine if you were lying.

Papy turned and wrapped his arms around your neck burying his face against your shoulder hiccuping and soon outright sobbing against you. Even Sansy wasn’t free of the waterworks, bright blue magic pooling in his own sockets. You rolled onto your back, bringing Papy on top of you and wrapped another arm around Sansy, holding him to your side.

“You’re safe now, nothing is going to pull you two apart from each other again,” you soothed, lightly rubbing against their backs.

After a while Papy sniffled and coughed a bit as he calmed down enough to speak again.

“I Told You, Brother,” He started, pulling back just to make watery eye contact with Sansy, “I _Knew_ This Human Was Good..”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All you need is fluff~
> 
> Keep up the comments guys! They fuel me +3+


	15. Sleep Tight

You were all cuddled up with three of your boys. Sleep came easy after the stress of the day, quicker than most nights now that you were sure the two newest additions to your home were able to relax. There was no risk of Cherry waking up crying. No worry about Sansy having a fit and destroying more of your home. No opportunity for Papy’s legs to get worse rather than better.

So how was it that you found yourself awake and unable to fall back asleep at three in the morning.

It wasn’t dreams that woke you up. No, you recalled very vividly some odd dream related to school where you were trying to find a classroom and, embarrassingly so, kept walking into the wrong room even though you were _certain_ that was the correct room from your years in elementary school. It wasn’t necessarily something you’d consider a stress dream in your large repertoire of familiar dreams. Yet, somehow you’d managed to wake up at least four hours before your typical time before classes.

The dream wasn’t stressful, but your nerves were kicking in in your tired state and with the ever present worry that any shifting what so ever would wake up any of your three little skeletons you couldn’t just stay laying there. So you slowly peeled away your covers, doing your very best not to jostle anyone as you made very concise movements to sneak to the edge of the bed and finally to the floor. So far you hadn’t seen a single bone move from their places, bundled up in their own personal blankets.

Home stretch! You thought, carefully tiptoeing across the carpeted floor to the door. Not even the shredded receipts moved with how slow and stealthy you were being and for a second you were really proud of yourself. This must be what parents feel like after putting their children to bed and having to sneak out of the room. You couldn’t help but grin at the idea as you gripped the brass colored door handle, silently turned it and began opening the door.

CREAAAAAAAAAAAAK!

You froze staring at the door like it had personally insulted you. Had it always been that loud?? Shit, you needed to grease the door hinges something awful. You took a deep breath and steeled yourself, only turning your head as you hesitantly looked back towards the bed.

No eyelights.. no movement.. Okay except that Sansy had turned in Papy’s hold, now facing you but settled down immediately without opening his eye sockets any more than normal and, again, no bright eye lights to tell you he’d actually woken up.

You continued not to move for a solid couple of minutes, just in case and slowly let out a quiet breath. You couldn’t quite fit through the door way yet. Just a few more inches and—

CREE—

You yanked it open further and slipped out, hoping it had been quick enough that none of the boys had heard anything.

Crisis averted. Now you could move freely without waking them. They deserved their sleep and damn if you weren’t going to let them have it on your account!

Now that you had succeeded in your mission to leave the room without waking anyone up you found yourself in the kitchen heating up some milk. Normally, when you couldn’t sleep, a cup of warm honey-milk was just what you needed to help you relax again. Maybe you’d watch a video or something on the couch if that didn’t work.

Watching the milk spin in slow circles in the microwave, along with the drone of the machine itself, did a lot to calm your nerves.

Nerves? The waiting gave you time to speculate about your sudden random fit of anxiety. It wasn’t like you to wake up like this, so you couldn’t help but read into it. Maybe you just got uncomfortable knowing you couldn’t turn without waking anyone. It was a lot like when you first got Cherry. As much as he wanted to sleep curled up to your chest, you had to keep him in his little tissue box bed for fear of turning in your sleep and crushing him to dust.

_You remember the bitty dusting in your hands. He cried to you. You remember yellow eye lights begging trying to get your attention. You’d missed it, you failed, you didn’t deserve—_

DING!

You jumped still looking at the microwave as the light shut off. What were you thinking about?

Popping open the microwave door you pulled your hot cup out and rummaged through your cabinet for some honey. Mmm, sweetness that supposedly helped your allergies! Well, at least it would if you hadn’t bought the cheap kind. You loved the idea that local honey was beneficial. It at least helped ease your guilty sweet tooth. That did leave you wondering though, could the boys get allergies? Cherry seemed perfectly fine so far, but it hadn’t been that long.

What would you do if you needed to give them medicine? Could they get sick?

You’d wondered that yesterday too, worried that Sansy wasn’t going to be able to wake up. What kind of effects would medicine even have on them? Clearly there was something given that they managed to keep Sansy dosed up with something or another. You wondered if there was a vet for bitties?

Would it even be a vet? Or would it be a bitty specific hospital.

Gosh how much would something like that cost? If there was one should you bring Cherry and Papy there? Hell, maybe Sansy needed a check up as well, you don’t know the long term effects of whatever drug they had him on. You don’t know what sort of health any of your bitties were in to be honest. You’d just.. fixed up Cherry’s leg and hoped for the best. Sansy just woke up and you hoped for the best. You were just going to work with Papy’s legs and hope for the best.

You finished stirring in two spoonful’s too many of honey and sat down shakily at the island, wrapping your fingers around the warm mug and watching the steam rise. Out of habit you simply waited for it to cool significantly before drinking it.

Two tiny bitties. That was the plan.

You only wanted to find Cherry a small friend to help him around when he needed it. They would have been cheaper to clothe and feed. But now you had two toddler sized bitties to feed as well, and they needed more than just a small portion of whatever you were eating. Which meant you had to actually figure out how to re-budget things.

Sighing you reached over, dragging your laptop close and turning it on as you grabbed a scrap of paper and started running some numbers.

You were doing well by yourself, even for your standards. You could afford to splurge on video games if you _really_ felt up to it. And sure maybe you did at one point, but before you got Cherry you’d actually felt too miserable to actually play it, so it ended up being a wasted effort attempting to cheer yourself up.

Still.. once you got cherry you ended up using that money to spoil him, just a little bit at least. At first you just got him nice food. Next you got him a few things of clothes, though he seemed to find the ones you made more comfortable for some reason. You’d planned to buy him some bitty furniture, but they were expensive and you were glad you’d waited.

Now you needed to look into things for Sansy and Papy. First things first would of course be clothes. Sansy would fit in clothes sized 12-18 or 18-24 months, you think. You weren’t very good at judging size but you could get a general price range for that. Papy would be in clothes meant for roughly three or four year olds. You’d have to actually bring them to the store to make sure, but you were pleased that you could make the guess anyhow.

It was annoying how the prices were so similar to your own clothes, despite being much less material. Maybe the boys wouldn’t mind more clothes made by you..

No no.. you weren’t going to subject them to that. It wasn’t fair. You weren’t going to make them wear things that were awkward and unfitted. Maybe inside and while they were sleeping, but you certainly weren’t going to submit them to going out in your handmade rags!

But.. clothes were so expensive… maybe they wouldn’t mind getting it from a second hand store.. you could likely afford those much more… but no what would they think of you? You adopted them and you weren’t able to get them nice things—they deserved to have nice things!

You could cut costs somewhere else. You’d have to make big meals that had plenty of left overs, nothing instant unless it was cheaper. The boys wouldn’t mind ramen a few times a week would they?

Augh no, no.

You could cook for them, let it last through the week and you could just eat ramen!

You scribbled down a few more numbers this would be fine, everything would be fine.

 

 

He woke up to a loud sound. This wasn’t fine, nothing was fine.

Why were they here so early? The store didn’t open until seven.

He wasn’t ready to wake up just yet, he didn’t want to deal with yelling, screaming kids, and awful human handlers who looked like—

Sansy opened his eyes just a bit.

His brother?

…

Without moving he shifted his gaze to look around. Right, he was with this human now, who didn’t appear to be in bed. He closed his eyes slightly and focused, vaguely feeling your soul just behind him. You weren’t moving and he wondered if you’d been the one to make the sound. With his eyelights still out he turned, sockets cracked just enough to see you frozen like a child with her hand in the cookie jar.

Good thing his teeth were in a semi-permanent smile, or he would have grinned. ‘ha, i caught you,’ he thought, inwardly chuckling as you took a quick breath, yanking the door open further. He could feel your soul cringe at the loud sound as you quickly left the room, not bothering to close the door behind you or risk making another squeak that could potentially wake anyone.

Once he was sure you were gone, he turned back to the window. It was still plenty dark outside. Humans usually didn’t wake up this early did they? He rubbed his sockets and stifled a yawn, turning towards his brother and fixing the blankets around him. The bigger bitty was sleeping more soundly than he could remember him sleeping in a while. Normally they’d both be upright and clinging to the bars, spending what little time they were allowed to attempt to reach through and touch each other.

At least that was how it’d been before they shifted the cages further apart. Afterwards, Sansy spent every night keeping a bone summoned for them to hold in-between their cages. His brother was a social creature, he was desperately touch starved and holding onto that little bit of magic during the night was enough to keep him from completely breaking down. Sansy wouldn’t admit it, but despite how often he could barely keep his eyes open enough at night, he needed the contact too.

And yet, here they were now.. laying right next to each other on this comfortable bed with clean bones, new clothes, and warm blankets. The reality of it all made his soul flutter happily as he leaned down and nuzzled against his brother’s skull in a light skeleton kiss. Papy was right here with him, they were fed, and despite the aftermath on his brother’s legs from being stuck in small cages, Sansy was sure it was something they could handle.

Speaking of which…

Sansy shifted their blankets just a bit, letting him look at Papy’s crooked legs. While it wasn’t unusual before for Papy to curl up if he was on his side, he was a bit bothered. He’d noticed his brother wasn’t able to hold his legs straight for very long and he was starting to understand why. His eye lit up as he focused magic at his hand, running it down Papy’s femur and halfway to his ankle bones. He could sense little pricks of magic Papy’s magic connecting with his own as he moved, strongest at the hips and almost completely depleted past his knees. Just as he thought, the magic that kept his brother together was incredibly weak. He must’ve been supplying just enough to keep the bones attached, but the rest of the flow had been cut due to how he’d been sitting.

No wonder he couldn’t put any weight on it. Any time he tried he was risking either collapsing due to a low supply of magic or severing the channel completely. If the magic channel shut down there would be no supply to the lower portion of his legs at all and the bones would fall apart and dust within minutes.

That should have made him worry more, but as long as Papy didn’t force himself, or the human didn’t push him thinking she’d do more good than harm, which again he wouldn’t let happen, then things would be perfectly fine. He’d work with his brother and get that magic flowing again. His brother was talented, he knew he’d be just fine.

Even now he was completely relaxed and sleeping through the night. Hopefully things would stay that way. Sansy did one more quick Check of his brother, making sure everything was okay, shifting the blankets again before turning to get out of the bed. He was exhausted and felt totally drained, but he didn’t quite trust the fact that you were up and about at this time of night. Guess he'd just have to take a look around and see for himself.

Sansy inwardly cringed. Didn’t you prove last night you weren’t going to do anything to them..? Or at least you’d tried so why did he get this sick feeling in his chest about what you were up to? For all he knew you could just be up doing normal human things, or maybe you just had a weird sleep schedule.

He shook his head, this was ridiculous. He needed to stay neutral on the situation for now. You’d shown  you might be trust worthy but that was still debatable. He didn’t have to trust you completely but he needed to make sure to stay in your good graces. With a soft sigh he nodded to himself, lightly swinging his legs back and forth off the side of the bed has he mulled between his options. It wouldn’t look bad on his part if he… went to check on you right? Yeah, he was just checking up on you because you weren’t in bed. You did say that your house was their house right?

White eyelights shifted back to the door and he nodded again, slipping off the bed and into the pile of paper shreds below him. He took a moment to listen to the crunch as he shifted his bare feet in the pile, grinning just a bit and wiggling his toe bones. Somehow it felt satisfying, like a final _fuck you_ to that place. Heh, maybe he should keep the pieces for cathartic reasons.

With a silent shrug he walked to the hallway pausing only when he realized he’d forgotten something. Quickly he padded back, stepping up on the bed frame and checking Papy before leaning over and checking on Cherry as well. He made sure the tiny bitty was tucked in and still comfortably asleep before finally exited the room for real this time.

Past the hallways and living room he found himself standing at the kitchen door way greeted by a mess of papers on the island and a few scattered about the floor. Judging from your expression you looked massively stressed out over something or another. Your eyes were puffy and casting dark shadows on your face and your hair was a mess not only from sleep but from that hand you kept running through your bangs and loose hair.

You were frantically writing still and looking back and forth from the papers to your computer and back again to writing. Huh… you seemed much more put together yesterday when he broke your stuff—er.. persuaded you forcefully. Sansy wondered what was getting under your skin.

Heh.

No, now wasn’t the time for that.

Instead he stepped quietly into the kitchen and picked up a couple of the fallen papers and looked them over, squinting. There sure were a lot of words. He wasn’t familiar with all of them but it seemed like basic items with names next to them and a whole lot of numbers.

Were you making a list of what they’d need? Maybe the cost of things.. Looked like Cherry was the cheapest while he and Papy needed a lot more numbers for even the same thing.

His gaze shifted to the other paper. This one was very similar but seemed to be focusing on.. eh.. he couldn’t read those words. What was, spa-ghe-ttie? He went down the list picking out a few other words he could put together. Oh you wanted a Hot Dog? He raised his brow bone and tilted his head. If you were running numbers for them why did you want a dog? He really hoped you didn’t want another pet. Three was already going to be a pain.

Sansy huffed focusing on the numbers and which things were scribbled out. No matter what paper he was looking at the numbers seemed to change too quickly for him to keep up with. Even though he had learned some addition and subtraction, there were just too many things. He wanted to solve it, but maybe this was best left to a human.

Setting the papers down back on the floor he turned on his heel and quickly attempted to leave the kitchen before he was caught snooping right under your nose, but he immediately froze hearing your scribbling and clicking come to a stop.

“Sansy..?”

Well shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trouble in paradise? 
> 
> Comments are my life blood <3 Thank you all so much for being so supportive!! I've really loved how in depth some of you get!
> 
> Check out my other Undertale fic :D  
> [Skeletons In Your Closet](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6542170/chapters/14966809)


	16. To Help You Sleep

“Sansy?”

You almost didn’t know how continue. Looking down, the small skeleton slowly turned back towards you like a child with his hand in the cookie jar. He was hunched over and wore a strained and guilty expression on his face, like he just  _ knew _ he was about to get in trouble.

You quickly attempted to collect yourself, rubbing your bleary eyes and trying to fix your hair. Oh gosh, how long had he been there watching you just about to come apart? Your gaze shifted to the scattered papers and you forced out a totally fake laugh.

“Oh wow I uhm, so what are you doing up?” Your attempted smile betrayed any semblance of composure you had, but the skeleton still kept staring at you, trying to judge your next move. You worried immediately about how much he’d seen and waited for him to speak up. But he just stood frozen, eyes locked on you for what seemed like an eternity before dropping down to the papers and back up to you.

There went that hopeful dream of maybe him not noticing. Damn.

Your shoulders dropped and you sighed, dropping your forced happy expression and trading it for an exhausted ‘well, what can you do?’ face.

Yeah, he’d clearly seen something. 

“I woke you up, didn’t I?” You offered instead. When you didn’t immediately get a response you stood, chair squeaking loudly against the tile floor as it scooted back. He flinched, but you chose not to point it out. Instead, you walked over to the fridge, grabbing the milk and setting it on the counter. Reaching up you snagged another cup by the handle and filled it up with milk, squeezing in the honey you’d forgotten to put up.

Just like you had done with your own cup you stuck it in the microwave and sighed, looking back to the bitty. You smiled at him and motioned him over quietly.

Sansy hesitated a moment, looking at you, then the microwave, but ultimately decided to walk to your side, allowing you to pick him up. You wished you knew what was on his mind. Despite your calm demeanor you could feel a knot of anxiety sitting in the pit of your stomach. Hopefully you played it off well.

Instead of saying anything the two of you just listened to the hum of the microwave as it warmed the sweet drink. It was a weirdly calming sound and Sansy leaned against your shoulder, watching it spin just like you had. This time you didn’t allow yourself to space off and when the seconds ticked down to the single digits you went ahead and popped open the microwave, pulling out the warm mug and setting it to the side, easily balancing Sansy on your hip.

Pulling out a clean spoon you stirred up the mug, set that the utensil in the sink, and walked the both of you to the kitchen island. You kept the small skeleton in your lap as you handed him the honey-milk and watched curiously as he took it into his small hands. 

“Sometimes, when it’s difficult to sleep I come out here and drink this. It’s simple, just warm milk and honey.. but it always made me feel happy and sleepy,” you tried to explain.

He bristled slightly, looking down. He had watched you make it, there wasn’t any way you could have slipped something bad in. Still, his gaze shifted to you, unsure. 

You tilted your head but seemed to understand his hesitance. You took it back for a moment and took a sip, letting out a satisfied sigh as you handed it back to him. He seemed satisfied with that.

Sansy looked down into the mug which was still swirling with its off white color. The warmth felt nice on his bones but not enough to burn. He lifted it to his slightly parted teeth, pausing before actually taking a sip, just to make sure he was actually  _ allowed _ to have it.

You gave him a tired, but warm, nod and he finally did take a sip. He swished it around his mouth slightly, savoring the sweet flavor as his magic made work and quickly dissolved it entirely. His system filled with warmth and he couldn’t help the sigh that slipped past his teeth. He could understand entirely why this was your chosen drink to help you sleep…

Sansy was about to take another sip when he peered into your mug, which was long since empty. He squinted slightly and looked back up to you, watching as your gaze shifted back to the papers.

But the drink hadn’t helped you tonight had it?

He sat up a bit more, taking another large sip and setting the mug down on the table grabbing your attention again.

You gave a nervous laugh. “Sorry, sorry, guess you’re trying to figure out why I didn’t go back to bed this time.. I was just doing a little bit of.. uhm.. paperwork,” you explained, though you didn’t appear very confident in your own words. Sansy frowned a bit reaching over and pulled another paper, this one being the most recent one you were working on.

Again, it was more figures trying to add up the cost of everyone.

“you weren’t expecting two bitties were you?” he questioned suddenly, struggling through reading a word on the page then seeming to relax

You flushed and looked away. “I mean no, but sometimes things just happen like that. I uhm.. I wouldn’t have gotten you both if I didn’t think I would be able to handle it.”

“and that’s why you more or less looked like you were about to become one with the paper huh?” he retorted, a slight bit of dry humor to his otherwise unsure expression. Your heart sank. This bitty had a good read on people didn’t he? 

“Uhm..” you started, unsure yourself how you were going to go about explaining this. Tears stung at your eyes in embarrassment. “Bitties are expensive… bigger bitties are kind of more like having toddlers--” you froze and quickly turned to him shaking a hand, “size wise! Not saying you’re a child or anything! It’s just.. It’s more expensive is all!” 

Oh geeze, you’d done it now. Sansy was going to think you were an asshole. You immediately shifted him out of your lap and set him on the counter, pressing your elbows into the same surface and burying your face in your hands. Your throat burned and you suddenly felt it hard to swallow, much less breathe. 

“You’re perfect for Cherry though, he’s small.. Too delicate. He refuses to walk even when he’s not showing any signs of being in pain. You’d be able to hold him, help him around easy when I’m not there so really it’s a blessing. Heh..” You turned to look at the quiet bitty with puffy red eyes. “Not to mention, I can actually buy you clothes that don’t look like a middle schooler tried to make it.” 

You shook your head and laughed, watching as Sansy looked down at his ‘clothes’.

“it’s not that bad,” he said honestly, picking at a loose string and giving you a small shrug. You sniffled a bit and gave another quiet laugh. 

“Say as long as it’s clean right?” you suggested, earning a small smile from the skeleton followed by a short nod. Still, he seemed to mull over saying something else, but chose to stay silent. Your shoulders sank a bit. 

He was still new, boundaries were still being tested and you could understand that.

As he took another sip of the drink, you wondered if his head was even all there. If the medicine had completely worn off and he was able to focus on things around him properly. He might not even remember any of this in the morning if you got him to bed fast enough. 

You were about to suggest going back to bed when he sighed and spoke up. 

“paps and i have lived without much for a while…you don’t need to stress yourself out over us. we pretty much can fend for ourselves you know. we’re just happy we’re under the same roof and not separated by bars,” Sansy explained casually as he tipped the mug all the way back, draining it of it’s contents. He hummed again, the last sip was much sweeter than the rest. 

“we don’t need better clothes, special beds, or toys or..” he paused, picking up the paper again, squinting at it, “stuff for a quiet corner?” He made a face trying to read off things you’d scribbled down for it. “listen, lady, a bean bag is probably not too comfortable so you could scratch that off right now.” 

All he could imagine was one of those big bags from the store full of hard, uncooked pinto beans. Why would someone want a plastic bag full of beans? Plastic always rubbed his bones the wrong way and he shuddered at the thought. 

You couldn’t help but laugh. 

“They’re not actual dried beans, and it’d just be a place where you could be left alone for a while if you needed it. Still...” 

Still, you shifted your gaze away as you trailed off. You’d taken them on as your responsibility. It wasn’t just a matter of having to take care of them now, you had to do a good job. 

_ If you didn’t you’d be just like  _ _ her _ _. _

Sansy noticed your eyes glaze over, caught up too deeply in a memory he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to hear about. His brow bones furrowed and his gaze shifted down to your chest watching your breathing catch and then start picking up. 

The bitty found himself torn. 

In the years he’d been shuffled from house to house he’d learned to put up walls. Never get attached, never feel guilt for what he needed to do to get out of there and back to Pap, but most importantly he’d learned to keep his distance. It was something he’d trained himself so heavily to do that it was kicking in now even when he didn’t need to get away from this place.

That side was urging him to leave. To allow you to hurt so you didn’t care for him, so you didn’t  _ want _ him. 

The other side of him recognized the damage that would cause. He reminded himself you were the human that had finally picked Pap. You were the one that had taken the both of them in even though you clearly weren’t fit to. And you’d done it for what?

To make life easier for Cherry? To make Sansy himself happy?

Where was the selfishness in that?

He inwardly sighed looking upward at the ceiling. As much as his instincts were telling him to run away from you, he couldn’t make up a good reason why he should. 

Instead his gaze shifted back down to you and he scooted closer to the edge of the counter. 

You were completely lost to the world. He knew that feeling all too well, though it was odd to see it self induced like this. 

“hey,” he said gently, “lady, look at me.”

When you didn’t he reached forward putting a hand on your cheek.

You jolted, gaze snapping to meet his. He gave a tired half smile and wiped away at the sudden trail of tears sliding down your cheek.

“you’re a good human, you’ve already done good for us. a lot more than most everyone else has for.. well, a while. so don’t be so hard on yourself. i know you might wanna do a lot for us, not sure why you think that’s a good idea, you barely know us but.. eh,” he paused and lost track of what he was trying to get at. He really didn’t want to deprive his brother of any spoiling he deserved but.. He knew seeing you this way would just make him feel guilty.

“just seeing you smile and try your best is gunna be more than enough for us,” he waited for you to make some sort of motion like you understood what he was saying. Instead he got a sniffle which he just sort of laughed at. Humans were kind of gross. “and, ya know, it’s not just you by yourself right? you’ve got me and pap, and even cherry to help you out so.. don’t worry about trying to make all these tough decisions by yourself. we may not be able to make money, but we could.. i dunno, help you choose if we actually need some of this junk or not. Like you said, we’re not toddlers.”

With that he picked up one of the papers that had been pushed behind him and read it over. He paused when he realized you were just staring at him, almost stunned to silence. Your lips parted ever so slightly but nothing came out past another hiccup. 

Sansy just rolled his eyelights, balling up the piece of paper and tossing it at your face. You jumped as it bounced off shock seeming to wear off as you settled down, watching it roll off the counter and fall to the floor.

“think about it okay? you can let us help,” he offered once more watching your breathing even out. 

Eventually you gave a small nod and reached forward, gently wrapping your arms around the small skeleton and pulling him into a hug. 

Somehow it was easier to breathe now and as Sansy wrapped his little arms around your neck, hugging you back. You still had no words to properly thank your little companion, but he didn’t seem to mind as the two of you settled into a comfortable silence. 

 

After some minutes you packed up your things and set them all neatly on the island, keeping Sansy held against you almost like you would have with Cherry. He didn’t squirm to be let go and seemed just as content as he rested his cheek bone against your shoulder, watching silently as you reorganized the papers and your thoughts. 

Once the mugs were put in the sink and you were leaving the kitchen you couldn’t help but pause taking a deep breath before the two of you attempted to go back to bed. You cleared your throat slightly, looking away.

“Thank you, Sansy,” you started as you scratched your cheek with your one free hand. 

His eye lights fluttered back to their brighter and more aware state. 

“heh, no problem.. least i could do,” he hummed with a slight shrug of his shoulders. It was true after all. You’d already done a lot for him and Pap and it wasn’t as if he had to make up for a few broken dishes or anything. 

With that it didn’t take the two of you long to settle back into bed. Sansy snuggled back into his place beside Papy, who cuddled up closer to you. For a brief moment you were concerned you’d wake him up but that didn’t appear to be the case. Cherry himself was deep in his sleep, twitching ever so slightly as he dreamed. 

You gave everyone little kisses and reached over Papy, holding Sansy closer to his brother and you. This time as you closed your eyes your mind finally settled. 

All you could think of was the kind of bitties these three would open up to become. And with that, you fell asleep to the thought of becoming a proper little family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! New chapter! I did it!  
> Sorry it's kind of a serious chapter, but reader is having some struggles :(
> 
> Thank you everyone who's been commenting and poking me to continue! I really Appreciate it!!


	17. Getting That Spark Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!!  
> Here have a new chapter <3
> 
> Thanks to TheSinBubble for proofing!

The next morning Papy found himself surprised as he sat up in a comfortable and warm place surrounded by three other comfortable and content souls.

Scratch that, two comfortable souls and the brief panic of his brother’s soul who gasped awake the moment Papy started to rub the sleep from his sockets. Sansy’s eyelights flickered to life and he jerked forward and clutched onto his brother’s ribs, staring wide eyed up at him as he processed where they were. Papy calmly reached down with a quiet yawn and gently rubbed the smaller skeleton’s skull to reassure him as he took the moment to look around.

You were still curled up on your side with your arm wrapped around the two of them, sleeping rather peacefully as the sun started to rise. It warmed Papy’s soul to see you there and he almost was brought to tears as the sheer relief that was still being there. He took a deep breath to steady himself, refusing to let the moment overwhelm him. 

You had chosen them. Out of all the perfectly good bitties in that place, you had chosen them. He finally had a place with his brother again where they weren’t separated just out of reach by bars. You were a good human, he knew that from the minute you knelt down in front of them with that worried look on your face. He was certain when you demanded to hold him, you were so warm. You were  _ still _ that warm. He hoped his brother would take the time to see that too.

With this he turned back to Sansy, who had loosened his grip and calmed down significantly. He looked exhausted. His bones looked almost chalky again, his eyelights were dimmer, and his sockets seemed more deep set with the dark ring under them. But he was there, he was alive, awake, and he was  _ right there _ . 

Papy leaned down and pressed his forehead lightly against his brother’s skull, basking once again in the physical contact he’d been starved of for far too long. It was hard to not get emotional again. 

“Good morning, Brother,” he whispered, straightening back up as Sansy shifted slowly to a sitting position as well. The smaller bitty mumbled a quiet ‘mornin’ as he picked up your arm and moved it with some difficulty across their laps and back to your chest. You grumbled quietly bringing your hands closer to your body, but otherwise settled down.

Papy smiled at you then took the moment to look back over the sleeping bitty behind them and wondered briefly if it would be okay to wake him up so they could find out what the rules for the morning were, but the tiny bitty seemed so comfortable and happy, with his hands curled up in your bangs pressing his face into your hair. He wondered how close the two of you were and just how the little Cherry bitty could sleep so calmly around them. 

Perhaps they’d left a good enough impression after yesterday? He smiled at the thought and inwardly hoped that they would be able to become good friends. Cherry seemed cute and for the most part fairly optimistic, he liked you and that was something they both could agree on. But for now, he turned back to his brother as he pulled the covered off of their legs and started to climb off the bed. It wasn’t too high up, but Papy noticed Sansy had to climb down using the bar that held the bed off the ground. 

He furrowed his brow bones for a moment as Sansy made it to the floor and motioned for him to come too. Were they even allowed to leave the room? Well... his brother had been here before him so he probably knew the rules... Right?

Papy shuffled over to the edge of the bed and was greeted with a very blunt reminder of his predicament as he pressed his heels into the bar of the bed and felt an uncomfortable, almost numb feeling in his kneecaps. His gaze shifted to his brother and he quickly shook his head. 

“c’mon, jump, i’ve got you,” his brother insiste, taking a step forward and keeping his arms out. It wasn’t a very tall bed, he knew you could have probably put your feet on the floor just by sitting up, but it was still slightly out of his reach and he really did not want to see what this floor felt like with his face. 

On the other hand, he really wanted to explore the apartment. What sort of place was it? What sort of things did you have? He vaguely got to see the livingroom and kitchen, and while he didn’t have much time in the bedroom he wanted to see the layout of the rest of the place. What did you keep on the lower shelves? What was in the closet? Was he able to get into the fridge? What was he allowed to touch? What was yours? What was Cherry’s? Did Sansy already have things? When would you and Cherry wake up? 

His mind was buzzing with unanswered questions as he felt his bones light up with blue magic. Sansy was trying to help him stand and step down and Papy was quick to do just as he wanted. He could almost hold his weight, the blue magic was helping quite a bit too, but just as soon as he had stood on the bar and made a move to step down the magic sputtered out and Papy’s legs were quick to buckle as well. 

“pap!” Sansy whispered loudly, jerking forward and grabbing Papy around the ribcage as the taller bitty fell forward with a yelp. Papy barely grabbed Sansy as they both clattered to the floor. 

Sansy groaned as Papy rolled off of him onto the floor and they both started to sit up. It wasn’t much of a fall, but it hadn’t been unexpected nonetheless. Still, as soon as Sansy looked up he couldn’t help but crack a grin, Papy was covering his mouth, trying not to laugh at the ridiculously frustrating situation. 

“Brother that was a spectacular failure!” he whispered, giggling to himself as he leaned over picked a piece of shredded receipt from between his toes. 

Sansy chuckled out a soft “sorry” before looking up towards the bed and raising a brow bone at how their noise hadn’t even disturbed the other two. To be fair, he could understand why you hadn’t woken up. You’d stayed up what he was sure was a ridiculously long time last night trying to figure out what to do with them. He suddenly wanted to tell Papy about it to figure out a plan on what they could do, but he swallowed the idea back down with a quiet sigh. No, he didn’t need to stress Papy out. There was no reason for him to feel guilty about the human’s choice. 

Instead, Sansy dragged himself back to his feet, brushing off a few pieces of receipt and kneeling down so Papyrus could climb onto his back. Really that was the only way he’d be able to get him out of this room for the moment, but that was fine. His brother never was one to willingly sit for very long. They’d already done their time doing just that. He grunted as Papy wrapped his arms around him putting the full brunt of his weight on him and hooking his legs over Sansy’s pelvis bone. It looked awkward, but he managed to carry him out nonetheless. 

Once they fully left the bedroom Sansy set his brother down in the hallway and quietly closed the door. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled down at the other bitty who was looking around eagerly. It was dark, there wasn’t much light shining in from the living room to their left but it was there was enough to see around. 

“Are we allowed to be out here?” Papy questioned quickly, though his gaze didn’t stop analyzing the potential between the other few doors. A bathroom for sure, humans had those; he remembered which one it was from last night. And then there was another room. A spare room? A closet? He remembered there being a closet in the living room, would you need two? 

“yeah, pretty sure she doesn’t mind,” Sansy said easily enough. He walked to the door on the right and peeked in. That was the bathroom, they’d already been in there so Papy wasn’t too curious about that one. Instead he looked at the end of the hallway, a long mirror stood about as tall as a human and a little bit wider. From where he was sitting he could see himself quite easily.

He looked a lot different than the last time he recalled seeing his reflection. He didn’t have that pearly almost bleached look about his bones anymore and just the way he was sitting was so… hunched and defeated.

Papy furrowed his brow bones at that. That simply wouldn’t do. How was he supposed to be a good role model for Cherry if he looked so… something. He looked something. And it wasn’t a good something either!

He sat up tall, puffing out his chest and made to try and stand up again. Cherry couldn’t walk because he’d been badly hurt, was still hurt. He was simply moping about because he wasn’t, what? Used to walking any more? A good role model would be putting all his effort into getting better so he could help the smaller bitty! 

He took a deep breath and pushed himself, using the wall as a crutch to the best of his abilities. Grunting out a quiet ‘nyeh’ he managed to almost do a proper wall sit before his legs wobbled and he slipped back to the floor with a thump. 

Almost immediately Sansy popped his head out of the bathroom, watching his brother catch his breath. He frowned a bit, realizing he must’ve tried to stay standing on his own. 

An easy grin slipped back to his face as he rounded the corner walking up to his brother who had an irritated look, staring up at the opposite wall as if it had personally offended him. Sansy’s gaze followed up the wall and he hummed, seeing at a beautiful painting of some underwater scene. 

“it’s pretty, isn’t it? i don’t think she has many pictures around. that’s pretty weird for a human,” he commented, humming to himself. 

“Perhaps she doesn’t like photographs?” Papy replied, looking over the clear teals and blues that seemed almost like he was looking at a real photograph. The frustration slowly slipped from his face as he turned instead to look at his brother. 

“maybe,” he replied with a light shrug, his gaze shifting back down to meet Papy’s. 

They shared a moment of silence between them before Papy started to try and push himself up from the floor again. Sansy immediately moved to help him but he was quickly swatted away. “I want to do it!” 

“bro, that’s not a good idea,” Sansy said quickly hands going under his arms to try and help him up again, but Papy pushed at him slightly and ended up tipping himself over and landing back on the floor with a clatter, leaving Sansy wide eyed and holding air. 

“shit, i’m sorry i--” he started reaching down for his brother again, but Papy stopped him, pushing himself to sit up right again and looking utterly dejected. 

“What Is  _ Wrong _ With Me??” He whimpered loudly, looking up at his brother, “Why Can I Not Walk Anymore? It Was Not Like This Before!” 

Sansy’s eyes widened slightly and he was quickly beside him on the floor, wrapping his arms around him. “hey it’s okay, it’s okay,” he cooed softly, wanting nothing more to comfort his brother now that physically could. 

“It Is Certainly NOT Okay!” Papy cried hands going around and gripping tightly at his brother’s shirt as tears pricked at his sockets, “How Am I Supposed To Do Anything Like This? Why Is It Like This! What Did I Do Wrong?”

He shifted his legs, able to bend his knees fairly easily, but something felt wrong. Like his kneecaps were numb, it felt… Uncomfortable. 

Sansy leaned back and shook his head. “hey, you didn’t do anything wrong. never think that okay? this is ‘cause of those humans and no one else.” 

At this Papy got quiet, brows furrowing. He glanced to the side and tried to remember if they had ever done anything to him to make this happen, but he just couldn’t think of anything. Sansy took that moment to continue. 

“look… here, sit for me, how you normally would,” he suggested, leaning back almost hesitantly, not truly wanting to break contact. 

Papy paused at that and scooted back against the wall, pulling his legs somewhat close to his chest and hunching down over them, the spitting image of how he was always sitting in the cage at the store. 

“What Is This Going To Accomplish?” He questioned, immediately feeling the need to try and stretch out and sit up straight. 

“wiggle your toes for me?” Sansy said instead, looking down to his bare feet and watching as he tried to wiggle them. It appeared stiff; they barely twitched. Sansy shifted his feet in front of him, trying the same motions. 

“like this,” he suggested, curling his toes in and then stretching them out. 

Papy frowned and attempted the same, but his only twitched in then back to their neutral position. 

“I Can’t,” he stated reaching up and rubbing his sockets. 

“roll your ankle around a bit?”

Papy watched Sansy do it and tried again. With his ankle he had a little bit more control, but it seemed to tire him out fairly quickly. Instead he looked back to his brother frowning heavily at the stilted movement and looking worried.

“look… it’s… not as bad as it looks, i promise,” Sansy tried to soothe, reaching over and putting a reassuring hand on his knee. 

“Then why is it not working..?” he asked quietly, lifting a leg and trying to do the motions a bit.

“look at how your sittin’, how would you describe it?” he asked, looking over how his brother was still positioned. 

Papy took a moment to think over that, sitting upright for a brief moment and curling back down. His gaze shifted towards the mirror again, taking in how he was sitting and what he hated about it. 

“Helpless. Defeated--” he started out, expression falling further, but Sansy quickly cut that off.

“think more practically,” he suggested.

Papy frowned again, thinking harder.

“Uncomfortable, Closed In, With Limited Movement?” he asked, unsure if that was what he was looking for. 

“yeah, exactly,” Sansy said with a nod, scooting closer. “and, how am i moving my hand?” he asked lifting it up, opening it, and closing it again. 

Papy sat up a little more, watching him. “Magic?” He straightened up more and copied the motion with his own hand with no problem. 

“you’re so smart bro,” he praised, earning a small smile from Papy, “magical impulses that jump from joint to joint to make us move and keep us together.” 

Papy seemed to mull on that for a few moments. “Which Means I Am Not Getting Enough Magic To My Legs?” he questioned, then his eyes seemed to light up in knowing, “Because Of How I Was Sitting! It Wasn’t Allowing Enough Magic To Go Through!” 

Sansy grinned at that. “you’re so cool, you figured it out.” 

“Which Means That To Fix It I Just Need More Magic To Go To My Legs!” He announced, pleased with himself, reaching down with magic at the ready, planning to just try and pump the limbs with magic. Sansy was quick to reach out to stop him though, grabbing his wrists. 

“Woah there, while that's great in theory, i’m not sure it’ll work,” he started, slowly letting him go. 

“What? But Why Not? It Just Needs Magic!” Papy whined, deflating slightly.

“Yeah, but if you tried to send an electrical charge to a busted circuit it’d just spark and fizzle out. I think if we just exercise it a bit every day, practice getting it used to the charge of magic again, it’ll start accepting more magic… i uh… don’t want to risk it shutting the magic channel off completely,” Sansy tried to explain while looking down at his legs. He pressed his hand on his brother’s knee and trailed it down to his ankle, sighing in relief. “actually, you’re already doing a lot better, i think sleeping it off like that was really good for you. you just gotta give it time to heal. you wanna be strong for cherry, right?” 

Papy gave an eager nod at that, sitting up straight again. 

“Of Course! I Will Be Strong And Get Better So I Can Help Him How I Am Supposed To!” He announced excitedly, “And You Will Get Better Too, Brother.”

Sansy paused a moment, easy grin faltering slightly. Of course he noticed. 

“yeah, you’re right as always,” he chuckled turning around to let the other bitty back on his back, “c’mon, let’s look around some more.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to get the important stuff out the way, more fluff and stuff will ensue next chapter, but this was kind of important.  
> TLDR; Papy's legs aren't working basically because magic isn't flowing to them right. Sansy assures him it'll be fine he just has to give it time and he'll be up on his feet in no time.
> 
> Anyway, be safe for the new year! Hope you enjoyed!  
> Remember Comments are life!   
> Also hit me up on tumblr <3 http://leenazenyo.tumblr.com/


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